• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.513-519
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• 2016

In this study, dynamic vertical displacement of liquid in the tuned liquid column damper(TLCD) is measured by a laser Doppler vibrometer(LDV) to overcome limitations of existing sensors and to leverage noncontact sensing. Addressing advantages of noncontact measurements, operational principles of the LDV to measure velocity and displacement of a target object in motion is explained. The feasibility of application of the LDV to measurement of liquid motion in the TLCD is experimentally explored. A series of shake table tests with the TLCD are performed to determine requirements of application of the LDV. Based on the experimental results, it is proved that the LDV works under the condition of adding dye to the liquid by increasing the intensity of reflected laser and thus validity is verified by comparison with a conventional wave height meter.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.85-103
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• 2011

Integration of finite element analysis (FEA) software into various software platforms is commonly used in coupling systems such as systems involving structural control, fluid-structure, wind-structure, soil-structure interactions and substructure method in which FEA is used for simulating the structural responses. Integrating an FEA program into various other software platforms in an efficient and simple way is crucial for the development and performance of the entire coupling system. The lack of simplicity of the existing integration methods makes this integration difficult and therefore entails the motivation of this study. In this paper, a novel practical technique, namely CS technique, is presented for integrating a general FEA software framework OpenSees into other software platforms, e.g., Matlab-$Simulink^{(R)}$ and a soil-structure interaction (SSI) system. The advantage of this integration technique is that it is efficient and relatively easy to implement. Instead of OpenSees, a cheap client handling TCL is integrated into the other software. The integration is achieved by extending the concept of internet based client-server concept, taking advantage of the parameterization framework of OpenSees, and using a command-driven scripting language called tool command language (TCL) on which the OpenSees' interface is based. There is no need for any programming inside OpenSees. The presented CS technique proves as an excellent solution for the coupling problems mentioned above (for both linear and nonlinear problems). Application examples are provided to validate the integration method and illustrate the various uses of the method in the civil engineering.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2015

The use of fragility curves in the design of bridges is becoming common these days. In this study, experimental data have been used to develop fragility curves for the potential of girder unseating of a three-segment bridge and a bridge-abutment system including the influence of spatially varying ground motions, pounding, and abutment movement. The ground excitations were simulated based on the design spectra for different soil conditions. The Newmarket Viaduct replacement bridge in Auckland was used as the prototype bridge. These fragility curves were also applied to the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. The study showed that for bridges with similar characteristics as the chosen prototype and with similar fundamental frequencies, pounding could increase the probability of girder unseating by up to 35% and 30% based on the AASHTO and NZTA seating length requirements, respectively. The assumption of uniform ground excitations in many design practices, such as the NZTA requirements, could potentially be disastrous as girders might have a very good chance of unseating (as much as 53% higher chances when considering spatial variation of ground motions) even when they are designed not to. In the case of superstructures with dissimilar frequencies, the assumption of fixed abutments could significantly overestimate the girder unseating potential when pounding was ignored and underestimate the chances when pounding was considered. Bridges subjected to spatially varying ground excitations simulated based on the New Zealand design spectra for soft soil conditions with weak correlation shows the highest chances of girders falling off, of up to 65% greater than for shallow soil excitations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.133-148
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• 2021

The paper presents a simplified force-based seismic design procedure for the preliminary design of steel haunch retrofitting for the seismic upgrade of deficient RC frames. The procedure involved constructing a site-specific seismic design spectrum for the site, which is transformed into seismic base shear coefficient demand, using an applicable response modification factor, that defines base shear force for seismic analysis of the structure. Recent experimental campaign; involving shake table testing of ten (10), and quasi-static cyclic testing of two (02), 1:3 reduced scale RC frame models, carried out for the seismic performance assessment of both deficient and retrofitted structures has provided the basis to calculate retrofit-specific response modification factor Rretrofitted. The haunch retrofitting technique enhanced the structural stiffness, strength, and ductility, hence, increased the structural response modification factor, which is mainly dependent on the applied retrofit scheme. An additional retrofit effectiveness factor (ΩR) is proposed for the deficient structure's response modification factor Rdeficient, representing the retrofit effectiveness (ΩR=Rretrofitted /Rdeficient), to calculate components' moment and shear demands for the retrofitted structure. The experimental campaign revealed that regardless of the deficient structures' characteristics, the ΩR factor remains fairly the unchanged, which is encouraging to generalize the design procedure. Haunch configuration is finalized that avoid brittle hinging of beam-column joints and ensure ductile beam yielding. Example case study for the seismic retrofit designs of RC frames are presented, which were validated through equivalent lateral load analysis using elastic model and response history analysis of finite-element based inelastic model, showing reasonable performance of the proposed design procedure. The proposed design has the advantage to provide a seismic zone-specific design solution, and also, to suggest if any additional measure is required to enhance the strength/deformability of beams and columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.4
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• pp.489-502
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• 2022

This paper is aimed at developing an optimization-based Finite Element model updating approach for structural damage identification and quantification. A modal flexibility-based error function is introduced, which uses modal assurance criterion to formulate the updating problem as an optimization problem. Because of the inexplicit input/output relationship between the candidate solutions and the error function's output, a robust and efficient optimization algorithm should be employed to evaluate the solution domain and find the global extremum with high speed and accuracy. This paper proposes a new multi-stage Selective Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO) algorithm to solve the optimization problem. The proposed multi-stage strategy not only fixes the premature convergence of the original Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, but also increases the speed of the search stage and reduces the corresponding computational costs, without changing or adding extra terms to the algorithm's formulation. Solving the introduced objective function with the proposed multi-stage SPSO leads to a smart feedback-wise and self-adjusting damage detection method, which can effectively assess the health of the structural systems. The performance and precision of the proposed method are verified and benchmarked against the original PSO and some of its most popular variants, including SPSO, DPSO, APSO, and MSPSO. For this purpose, two numerical examples of complex civil engineering structures under different damage patterns are studied. Comparative studies are also carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in the presence of measurement errors. Moreover, the robustness and accuracy of the method are validated by assessing the health of a six-story shear-type building structure tested on a shake table. The obtained results introduced the proposed method as an effective and robust damage detection method even if the first few vibration modes are utilized to form the objective function.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.443-460
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• 2024

This study develops Titanium (Ti) and Magnesium (Mg)-based nano-alloys to enhance the earthquake resilience of steel structures using machine learning (SVM) and sensor technology. Embedding Ti and Mg into steel at the nanoscale creates a lightweight, durable, and flexible material capable of withstanding seismic forces. Ti enhances tensile strength and flexibility, while Mg reduces weight, lowering seismic loads on buildings. The performance of these nano-alloys was assessed through shake table tests, cyclic load testing, and dynamic response testing, showing that nano-alloy-enhanced steel structures experienced 60% less displacement and 40% lower acceleration than traditional steel, demonstrating superior energy absorption and stress distribution. Fatigue tests revealed that the nano-alloy could endure 20,000 loading cycles, outperforming the 8,000 cycles of conventional steel. Integrated sensor technology, including strain gauges and accelerometers, provided real-time stress and deformation data, confirming the material's effectiveness in stress distribution and vibration damping. The SVM model optimized alloy composition, achieving 94% prediction accuracy in assessing seismic performance, highlighting the nano-alloys' durability and resilience. This study suggests that Ti and Mg nano-alloys could greatly improve earthquake-resistant construction.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.157-174
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• 2020

The in-situ pushover test differs from the shake-table test because it is performed outdoors and thus its size is not restricted by space, which allows us to test a full-size building. However, to build a new full-size building for the test is not economical, consequently scholars around the world usually make scale structures or full-scale component units to be tested in the laboratory. However, if in-situ pushover tests can be performed on full-size structures, then the seismic behaviors of buildings during earthquakes can be grasped. In view of this, this study conducts two in-situ pushover tests of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. One is a masonry-infilled RC building with openings (the openings ratio of masonry infill wall is between 24% and 51%) and the other is an RC building without masonry infill. These two in-situ pushover tests adopt obsolescent RC buildings, which will be demolished, to conduct experiment and successfully obtain seismic capacity curves of the buildings. The test results are available for the development or verification of a seismic evaluation model. This paper uses ASCE 41-17 as the main evaluation model and is accompanied by a simplified pushover analysis, which can predict the seismic capacity curves of low-rise buildings in Taiwan. The predicted maximum base shear values for masonry-infilled RC buildings with openings and for RC buildings without masonry infill are, respectively, 69.69% and 87.33% of the test values. The predicted initial stiffness values are 41.04% and 100.49% of the test values, respectively. It can be seen that the ASCE 41-17 evaluation model is reasonable for the RC building without masonry infill walls. In contrast, the analysis result for the masonry infilled RC building with openings is more conservative than the test value because the ASCE 41-17 evaluation model is limited to masonry infill walls with an openings ratio not exceeding 40%. This study suggests using ASCE 41-17's unreinforced masonry wall evaluation model to simulate a masonry infill wall with an openings ratio greater than 40%. After correction, the predicted maximum base shear values of the masonry infilled RC building with openings is 82.60% of the test values and the predicted initial stiffness value is 67.13% of the test value. Therefore, the proposed method in this study can predict the seismic behavior of a masonry infilled RC frame with large openings.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.69-89
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• 2009

Reinforced and prestressed concrete (RC and PC) thin walls are crucial to the safety and serviceability of structures subjected to shear. The shear strengths of elements in walls depend strongly on the softening of concrete struts in the principal compression direction due to the principal tension in the perpendicular direction. The past three decades have seen a rapid development of knowledge in shear of reinforced concrete structures. Various rational models have been proposed that are based on the smeared-crack concept and can satisfy Navier's three principles of mechanics of materials (i.e., stress equilibrium, strain compatibility and constitutive laws). The Cyclic Softened Membrane Model (CSMM) is one such rational model developed at the University of Houston, which is being efficiently used to predict the behavior of RC/PC structures critical in shear. CSMM for RC has already been implemented into finite element framework of OpenSees (Fenves 2005) to come up with a finite element program called Simulation of Reinforced Concrete Structures (SRCS) (Zhong 2005, Mo et al. 2008). CSMM for PC is being currently implemented into SRCS to make the program applicable to reinforced as well as prestressed concrete. The generalized program is called Simulation of Concrete Structures (SCS). In this paper, the CSMM for RC/PC in material scale is first introduced. Basically, the constitutive relationships of the materials, including uniaxial constitutive relationship of concrete, uniaxial constitutive relationships of reinforcements embedded in concrete and constitutive relationship of concrete in shear, are determined by testing RC/PC full-scale panels in a Universal Panel Tester available at the University of Houston. The formulation in element scale is then derived, including equilibrium and compatibility equations, relationship between biaxial strains and uniaxial strains, material stiffness matrix and RC plane stress element. Finally the formulated results with RC/PC plane stress elements are implemented in structure scale into a finite element program based on the framework of OpenSees to predict the structural behavior of RC/PC thin-walled structures subjected to earthquake-type loading. The accuracy of the multiscale modeling technique is validated by comparing the simulated responses of RC shear walls subjected to reversed cyclic loading and shake table excitations with test data. The response of a post tensioned precast column under reversed cyclic loads has also been simulated to check the accuracy of SCS which is currently under development. This multiscale modeling technique greatly improves the simulation capability of RC thin-walled structures available to researchers and engineers.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.549-562
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• 2017

The US railroad network carries 40% of the nation's total freight. Railroad bridges are the most critical part of the network infrastructure and, therefore, must be properly maintained for the operational safety. Railroad managers inspect bridges by measuring displacements under train crossing events to assess their structural condition and prioritize bridge management and safety decisions accordingly. The displacement of a railroad bridge under train crossings is one parameter of interest to railroad bridge owners, as it quantifies a bridge's ability to perform safely and addresses its serviceability. Railroad bridges with poor track conditions will have amplified displacements under heavy loads due to impacts between the wheels and rail joints. Under these circumstances, vehicle-track-bridge interactions could cause excessive bridge displacements, and hence, unsafe train crossings. If displacements during train crossings could be measured objectively, owners could repair or replace less safe bridges first. However, data on bridge displacements is difficult to collect in the field as a fixed point of reference is required for measurement. Accelerations can be used to estimate dynamic displacements, but to date, the pseudo-static displacements cannot be measured using reference-free sensors. This study proposes a method to estimate total transverse displacements of a railroad bridge under live train loads using acceleration and tilt data at the top of the exterior pile bent of a standard timber trestle, where train derailment due to excessive lateral movement is the main concern. Researchers used real bridge transverse displacement data under train traffic from varying bridge serviceability levels. This study explores the design of a new bridge deck-pier experimental model that simulates the vibrations of railroad bridges under traffic using a shake table for the input of train crossing data collected from the field into a laboratory model of a standard timber railroad pile bent. Reference-free sensors measured both the inclination angle and accelerations of the pile cap. Various readings are used to estimate the total displacements of the bridge using data filtering. The estimated displacements are then compared to the true responses of the model measured with displacement sensors. An average peak error of 10% and a root mean square error average of 5% resulted, concluding that this method can cost-effectively measure the total displacement of railroad bridges without a fixed reference.