• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2014

Masonry-infilled walls have been used in reinforced concrete(RC) frame structures as interior and exterior partition walls. Since these walls are considered as nonstructural elements, they were only considered as additional mass. However, infill walls tend to interact with the structure's overall strength, rigidity, and energy dissipation. Infill walls have been analyzed by finite element method or transposed as equivalent strut model. The equivalent strut model is a typical method to evaluate masonry-infilled structure to avoid the burden of complex finite element model. This study compares different strut models to identify their properties and applicability with regard to the characteristics of the structure and various material models.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.157-179
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• 2013

Vulnerability studies on the existing building stock require that a large number of buildings is analyzed to obtain statistically significant evaluations of the seismic performance. Therefore, analytical evaluation methods need to be based on simplified methodologies of analysis which can afford the treatment of a large building population with a reasonable computational effort. Simplified Pushover-Based Earthquake Loss Assessment approach (SP-BELA), where a simplified methodology to identify the structural capacity of the building through the definition of a pushover curve is adopted, was developed on these bases. Main objective of the research work presented in this paper is to validate the simplified methodology implemented in SP-BELA against the results of more sophisticated nonlinear dynamic analyses (NLDAs). The comparison is performed for RC buildings designed only to vertical loads, representative of the "as built" in Italy and in Mediterranean countries with a building stock very similar to the Italian one. In NLDAs the non linear and degrading behaviour, typical of the structures under consideration when subjected to high seismic loads, is evaluated using models able to capture, with adequate accuracy, the non linear behaviour of RC structural elements taking into account stiffness degradation, strength deterioration, and pinching effect. Results show when simplified analyses are in good agreement with NLDAs. As a consequence, unsatisfactory results from simplified analysis are pointed out to address their current applicability limits.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1337-1353
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• 2015

Seismic upgrading of existing structures is a technical and social issue aimed at risk reduction. Sustainable design is one of the most important challenges in any structural project. Nowadays, many retrofit strategies are feasible and several traditional and innovative options are available to engineers. Basically, the design strategy can lead to increase structural ductility, strength, or both of them, but also stiffness regulation and supplemental damping are possible strategies to reduce seismic vulnerability. Each design solution has different technical and economical performances. In this paper, four different design solutions are presented for the retrofit of an existing RC frame with poor concrete quality and inadequate reinforcement detailing. The considered solutions are based on FRP wrapping of the existing structural elements or alternatively on new RC shear walls introduction. This paper shows the comparison among the considered design strategies in order to select the suitable solution, which reaches the compromise between the obtained safety level and costs during the life-cycle of the building. Each solution is worked out by considering three different levels of seismic demand. The structural capacity of the considered retrofit solutions is assessed with nonlinear static analysis and the seismic performance is evaluated with the capacity spectrum method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.345-353
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• 2022

The configuration of an open ground floor (pilotis) is a common and very critical irregularity observed in multistory reinforced concrete frame structures. The characteristics and the geometrical formation of the beams of the first story proved to be a critical parameter for the overall seismic behavior of this type of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. In this work the combination of open ground floor (pilotis) morphology with very strong perimetrical beams at the level of the first story is studied. The observation of the seismic damages and the in situ measurements of the fundamental period of four buildings with this morphology and Π-shaped plan view are presented herein. Further analytical results of a pilotis type Π-shaped RC structure are also included in the study. From the measurements and the analytical results yield that the open ground floor configuration greatly influences the fundamental period whereas this morphology in combination with strong beams can lead to severe local shear damages in the columns of the ground floor. The structural damage was limited in the columns of the ground floor and yet based on the changes of the in situ measured fundamental period the damaged level is assessed as DI=88%. Furthermore, due to the Π-shape of the plan view the tendency of the parts of the building to move independently strongly influences the distribution of the damages over the ground floor vertical elements.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.393-404
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• 2023

This paper presents the application of hybrid-simulation-based adapter elements for the non-linear two-scale analysis of reinforced concrete frames with masonry infills under seismic-like demands. The approach provides communication and distribution of the computations carried out by two or more remote or locally distributed numerical models connected through the OpenFresco Framework. The modeling consists of a global analysis formed by macro-elements to represent frames and walls, and to reduce global degrees of freedom, portions of the structure that require advanced analysis are substituted by experimental elements and dimensional couplings acting as interfaces with their respective sub-assemblies. The local sub-assemblies are modeled by solid finite elements where the non-linear behavior of concrete matrix and masonry infill adopt a continuum damage representation and the reinforcement steel a discrete one, the conditions at interfaces between concrete and masonry are considered through a contact model. The methodology is illustrated through the analysis of a frame-wall system subjected to lateral loads comparing the results of using macro-elements, finite element model and experimental observations. Finally, to further assess and validate the methodology proposed, the paper presents the pushover analysis of two more complex structures applying both modeling scales to obtain their corresponding capacity curves.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.113-120
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• 1994

Large Concrete Panel Structures behave quite differently from frame or monolithic shear wall structures because of the weakness of Joint in stiffness and strength. The joint experiences large deformation such as shear-slip in vertical and horizontal joint and rocking and crushing in horizontal joint because of localized stress concentration, but the wall panels behave elastically under cyclic loads. In order to describe the nonlinear behavior of the joint in the analysis of PC structures, different analysis technique from that of RC structures is needed. In this paper, for analysis of large concrete panel subassemblage subjected to cyclic loads, the wall panels are idealized by elastic finite elements, and the joints by nonlinear spring elements with various load-deflection relationship. The analytical results are compared with the experimental results on the strength, stiffness, energy dissipation and lateral drift, and the effectiveness of this computer analysis modelling technique is checked.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 2014

Modern trend in structural design is to use smaller elements in order to ensure several purposes such as economy, functionality and aesthetic in appearance. However, because of decreasing rigidity of the structural elements, the system displacements increases and displacements become an important subject in this kind of structures takes into account both geometrical changes and the carrying capacity of the material after linear-elastic boundary. In this study, a method is proposed to calculate the failure loads and to analyse the reinforced concrete space frame systems. The numerical examples gathered from the literature survey are solved with this method utilising the prepared computer program and the comparable results are presented. The results show that the method is sufficiently accurate.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.203-220
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• 2010

In the present study, exterior beam-column sub-assemblage from a regular reinforced concrete (RC) building has been considered. Two different types of beam-column sub-assemblages from existing RC building have been considered, i.e., gravity load designed ('GLD'), and seismically designed but without any ductile detailing ('NonDuctile'). Hence, both the cases represent the under-designed structure at different time frame span before the introduction of ductile detailing. For designing 'NonDuctile' structure, Eurocode and Indian Standard were considered. Non-linear finite element (FE) program has been employed for analysing the sub-assemblages under cyclic loading. FE models were developed using quadratic concrete brick elements with embedded truss elements to represent reinforcements. It has been found that the results obtained from the numerical analysis are well corroborated with that of experimental results. Using the validated numerical models, it was proposed to correlate the energy dissipation from numerical analysis to that from experimental analysis. Numerical models would be helpful in practice to evaluate the seismic performance of the critical sub-assemblages prior to design decisions. Further, using the numerical studies, performance of the sub-assemblages with variation of axial load ratios (ratio is defined by applied axial load divided by axial strength) has been studied since many researchers have brought out inconsistent observations on role of axial load in changing strength and energy dissipation under cyclic load.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.11-21
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• 2010

This study presents seismic responses of 5-story reinforced concrete structures retrofitted with the buckling-restrained braces using a time-dependent element. The time-dependent element having birth and death times can freely be activated within the user defined time intervals during the time history analysis. The buckling-restrained brace that showed the largest energy dissipation capacity among the test specimens in previous research was used for retrofitting the RC buildings in this study. It was assumed that the first story of the damaged building under the first earthquake was retrofitted with the buckling-restrained braces considered as the time-dependent element before the second of the successive earthquakes occurs. Under this assumption, this paper compares seismic responses of the RC structures with the time-dependent element subjected to the successive earthquake. Subjected to the second earthquake, it was observed that activation of the BRB systems largely decreases deformation of the moment frame where the damage was concentrated under the first earthquake. However, damages to the shear wall systems were increased after activation of the BRB systems. Since the cumulative damages of the shear wall systems were infinitesimal compared with the retrofit effect of the moment frame, the BRB system was effective under the successive earthquake.