• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.511-539
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• 2015

The main objective of this study is to analytically investigate the effectiveness of different strengthening solutions in upgrading the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Nepal. For this, four building models with different structural configurations and detailing were considered. Three possible rehabilitation solutions were studied, namely: (a) RC shear wall, (b) steel bracing, and (c) RC jacketing for all of the studied buildings. A numerical analysis was conducted with adaptive pushover and dynamic time history analysis. Seismic performance enhancement of the studied buildings was evaluated in terms of demand capacity ratio of the RC elements, capacity curve, inter-storey drift, energy dissipation capacity and moment curvature demand of the structures. Finally, the seismic safety assessment was performed based on standard drift limits, showing that retrofitting solutions significantly improved the seismic performance of existing buildings in Nepal.

• 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.32 no.5
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• pp.455-464
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• 2023

Seismologists now suggest that the earth has entered an active seismic period; many earthquake-related events are occurring globally. Consequently, numerous casualties, as well as economic losses due to earthquakes, have been reported in recent years. Primarily, significant and colossal damage occurs in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings with masonry infill wall systems, and the construction of these types of structures have increased worldwide. According to a report from the Ministry of Education in the Republic of Korea, many buildings were built with RC frames with masonry infill walls in the Republic of Korea during the 1980s. For years, most structures of this type have been school buildings, and since the Pohang earthquake in 2017, the government of the Republic of Korea has paid close attention to this social event and focused on damage from earthquakes. From a long-term research perspective, damage from structural collapse due to the short column effect has been a major concern, specifically because the RC frame with a masonry infill wall system is the typical form of structure for school buildings. Therefore, the short column effect has recently been a major topic for research. This study compares one RC frame with four different types of RC frames with masonry infill wall systems. Structural damage due to the short column effect is clearly analyzed, as the result of this research is giving in a higher infill wall system produces a greater shear force on the connecting point between the infill wall system and the column. The study is expected to be a useful reference for research on the short column effect in RC frames with masonry infill wall systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.515-537
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• 2014

Current seismic codes (e.g. the NTC08 Italian code and the EC8 European code) adopt a performance-based approach for both the design of new buildings and the assessment of existing ones. Different limit states are considered by verifying structural members as well as non structural elements and facilities which have generally been neglected in practice. The key role of non structural elements on building performance has been shown by recent earthquakes (e.g. L'Aquila 2009) where, due to the extensive damage suffered by infills, partitions and ceilings, a lot of private and public buildings became unusable with consequent significant socio-economic effects. Furthermore, the collapse of infill panels, particularly in the case of out-of-plane failure, represented a serious source of risk to life safety. This paper puts forward an infill model capable of accounting for the effects arising from prior in-plane damage on the out-of-plane capacity of infill panels. It permits an assessment of the seismic performance of existing RC buildings with reference to both structural and non structural elements, as well as of their mutual interaction. The model is applied to a building type with RC framed structure designed only to vertical loads and representative of typical Italian buildings. The influence of infill on building performance and the role of the out-of-plane response on structural response are also discussed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2019

Most school buildings consist of reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames with masonry infills. The longitudinal direction frames of those school buildings are relatively weak due to the short-column effects caused by the partial masonry infills and need to be evaluated carefully. In 'Manual for Seismic Performance Evaluation and Retrofit of School Facilities' published in 2018, response modification factor of 2.5 is applied to non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills, but sufficient verification of the factor has not been reported yet. Therefore, this study conducted seismic performance evaluation of planar RC moment frames with partial masonry infills in accordance with both linear analysis and nonlinear static analysis procedures presented in the manual. The evaluation results from the different procedures are compared in terms of assessed performance levels and number of members not meeting target performance objectives. Finally, appropriate response modification factors are proposed with respect to a shear-controlled column ratio.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.609-613
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• 2004

An economic analysis is one of the most dominant factors to determine the project feasibility of super tall building. In economic considerations, it is very important toadopt optimum structural floor systems because these are dependent on both the cost and the duration of construction. The economics affected by structural floor systems are more distinct athigher story. As the story increases, the construction cost of floor system. is accumulated linearly, while the cost of lateral resisting system is increased geometrically. The purpose of this study is to investigate the economical effects of super tall buildings through application of optimum structural floor systems. Three types of structural systems(RC beam-column frame, RC flat plate frame, and Steel frame) of super tall buildings having 50-stories are considered in this study and compared to RC flat plate slab with other systems. Analytical result shows that RC flat plate slab using lightweight concrete ismost effective in both the cost and the duration of construction.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.209-223
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• 2019

The assessment of wind-induced vibration for tall reinforced concrete (RC) buildings requires the accurate estimation of their dynamic properties, e.g., the fundamental vibration periods and damping ratios. In this study, RC frame-shear wall systems designed under gravity and wind loadings have been evaluated by utilising 3D FE modelling incorporating eigen-analysis to obtain the elastic periods of vibration. The conducted parameters consist of the number of storeys, the plan aspect ratio (AR) of buildings, the core dimensions, the space efficiency (SE), and the leasing depth (LD) between the internal central core and outer frames. This analysis provides a reliable basis for further investigating the effects of these parameters and establishing new formulas for predicting the fundamental vibration periods by using regression analyses on the obtained results. The proposed constrained numerically based formula for vibration periods of tall RC frame-shear wall office buildings in terms of the height of buildings reasonably agrees with some cited formulas for vibration period from design codes and standards. However, the same proposed formula has a high discrepancy with other cited formulas from the rest of design codes and standards. Also, the proposed formula agrees well with some cited experimentally based formulas.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.41-50
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• 2009

Following an earthquake, the major concerns for damaged buildings are their safety/risk in the event of aftershocks, and thus a quantitative damage assessment must be performed in order to evaluate their residual seismic capacity and to identify necessary actions for the damaged buildings. Post-event damage evaluation is therefore as essential for the quick recovery of a damaged community as pre-event seismic evaluation and strengthening of vulnerable buildings. The objective of this study is to develop a post-earthquake seismic evaluation method for RC frames with URM infill wall for typical school buildings. For this purpose, full-scale, one-bay, single-story specimens having different axial loads in columns are tested under cyclic loadings. During the tests, residual crack widths, which can also be found in damaged buildings, are measured in order to estimate the residual seismic capacity from the observed damage. In this paper, the relationship between the measured residual crack width and the residual seismic capacity is discussed analytically and experimentally, and reduction factors are proposed to estimate the residual seismic capacity based on the observed damage level.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.5
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• pp.563-576
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• 2019

According to The Concrete Centre, in the UK shear walls have become an inseparable part of almost every reinforced concrete frame building. Recently, the construction industry has questioned the need for shear walls in low to mid-rise RC frame buildings. This study tried to address the issue in two stages: The first stage, the feasibility of removing shear walls in an existing design for a residential building where ETABS and CONCEPT software were used to investigate the structural performance and cost-effectiveness respectively. The second stage, the same structure was examined in various locations in the UK to investigate regional effects. This study demonstrated that the building without shear wall could provide adequate serviceability and strength within the safe range defined by Eurocodes. As a result, construction time, overall cost and required concrete volume are reduced which in turn enhance the sustainability of concrete construction.