• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.501-516
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• 2014

The rocking pier system (RPS) allows the columns to rock on beam or foundation surfaces during the attacks of a strong earthquake. Literatures have proved that seismic energy dissipated by the RPS through the column impact is limited. To enhance the energy dissipation capacity of a RPS bridge substructure, frictional hinge dampers (FHDs) were installed and evaluated by shaking table tests. The supplemental FHDs consist of two brass plates sandwiched by three steel plates. The strategy of self-centering design is to isolate the seismic energy by RPS at the columns and then dissipate the energy by FHDs at the bridge deck. Component tests of FHD were first conducted to verify the friction coefficient and dynamic characteristic of the FHDs. In total, 32 shaking table tests were conducted to investigate parameters such as wave forms of the earthquake (El Centro 1940 and Kobe 1995) and normal forces applied on the friction dampers. An analytical model was also proposed to compare with the tested damping of the bridge sub-structure with or without FHDs.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.225-238
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• 2021

Supplemental passive dampers are widely employed to improve the structural performance of buildings under seismic excitations. Nevertheless, the added damping could be counter-productive if the axial forces induced by the damper reaction forces are not routed properly in the columns. A few researchers engaged to optimize the width-wise damper arrangement to improve the delivered path of the axial column forces. However, most of these studies are limited under the design-based seismic level and few of them has evaluated the collapse performance of buildings under strong earthquakes. In this paper, the strategic width-wise placement method of viscous dampers is explored regarding the building performance under collapse state. Two realistic steel buildings with different storeys are modelled and compared to explore higher mode effects. Each building is designed with four different damper arrangement scenarios based on a classic damper distribution method. Both a far-fault and a near-fault seismic environment are considered for the buildings. Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is performed to evaluate the probability of collapse and the plastic mechanism of the retrofitted steel buildings.

• 한국전산구조공학회논문집
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.329-339
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• 2002

본 연구에서는 비선형 정적해석법인 능력스펙트럼 법을 이용하여 성능목표를 만족하기 위하여 필요한 점탄성 감쇠기를 설계하는 절차를 제시하였다. 점탄성 감쇠기의 적정 크기를 구하기 위해 목표 변위에서 필요한 유효감쇠 비를 구한 다음 구조물의 이력거동에 의한 등가감쇠 비와 고유감쇠 비를 이용하여 필요한 감쇠기의 감쇠를 구하였다. 점탄성 감쇠기를 설치할 경우에는 구조물의 감쇠뿐만 아니라 강성도 변화하기 때문에 반복계산이 필요하게 된다. 본 연구에서는 먼저 단자유도계에서 구조물의 설계변수를 변화시키면서 제안된 방법의 타당성을 검증하였다. 또한 10층의 철골조 건물에 적용하고 지진응답을 구하였다. 제안된 방법에 따라 설계된 감쇠기를 설치하고 수행한 시간이력해석 결과에 의하면 고려된 설계변수에 관계없이 목표변위를 만족하는 것으로 나타났다.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제44권5호
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• pp.611-631
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• 2012

The passive energy dissipation technology has been proven to be reliable and robust for recent practical applications. Various dampers or energy dissipation devices have been widely used in building structures for enhancing their performances during earthquakes, windstorm and other severe loading scenarios. This paper presents a simplified seismic design procedure for retrofitting earthquake-damaged frames with viscous dampers. With the scheme of designing the main frame and the supplemental viscous dampers respectively, the seismic analysis model of damped structure with viscous dampers and braces was studied. The specific analysis process was described and approach to parameter design of energy dissipation components was also proposed. The expected damping forces for damped frame were first obtained based on storey shear forces; and then they were optimized to meet different storey drift requirements. A retrofit project of a RC frame school building damaged in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was introduced as a case study. This building was retrofitted by using viscous dampers designed through the simplified design procedure proposed in this paper. Based on the case study, it is concluded that this simplified design procedure can be effectively used to make seismic retrofit design of earthquake-damaged RC frames with viscous dampers, so as to achieve structural performance objectives under different earthquake risk levels.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.85-98
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• 2002

The use of supplemental damping to dissipate seismic energy is one of the most economical and effective ways to mitigate the effects of earthquakes on structures. Both displacement-dependent and velocity-dependent devices dissipate earthquake-induced energy effectively. Combining displacement-dependent and velocity-dependent devices for seismic mitigation of structures minimizes the shortcomings of individual dampers, and is the most economical solution for seismic mitigation. However, there are few publications related to the optimum distributions of combined devices in a multiple-bay frame building. In this paper, the effectiveness of a building consisting of multiple bags equipped with combined displacement-dependent and velocity-dependent devices is investigated. A four-story building with six bays was selected as an example to examine the efficiency of the proposed combination methods. The parametric study shows that appropriate arrangements of different kinds of devices make the devices more efficient and economical.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제1권3호
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• pp.307-326
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• 2010

This paper is concerned with the optimal seismic design of added viscous dampers in yielding plane frames. The total added damping is minimized for allowable values of local performance indices under the excitation of an ensemble of ground motions in both regular and irregular structures. The local performance indices are taken as the maximal inter-story drift of each story and/or the normalized hysteretic energy dissipated at each of the plastic hinges. Gradients of the constraints with respect to the design variables (damping coefficients) are derived, via optimal control theory, to enable an efficient first order optimization scheme to be used for the solution of the problem. An example of a ten story three bay frame is presented. This example reveals the following 'fully stressed characteristics' of the optimal solution: damping is assigned only to stories for which the local performance index has reached the allowable value. This may enable the application of efficient and practical analysis/redesign type methods for the optimal design of viscous dampers in yielding plane frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.215-227
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• 2018

Supplemental passive control devices are widely considered as an important tool to mitigate the dynamic response of a building under seismic excitation. Nevertheless, a systematic method for strategically placing dampers in the buildings is not prescribed in building codes and guidelines. Many deterministic and stochastic methods have been proposed by previous researchers to investigate the optimum distribution of the viscous dampers in the steel frames. However, the seismic performances of the retrofitted buildings that are under large earthquake intensity levels or near collapse state have not been evaluated by any seismic research. Recent years, an increasing number of studies utilize genetic algorithms (GA) to explore the complex engineering optimization problems. GA interfaced with nonlinear response history (NRH) analysis is considered as one of the most powerful and popular stochastic methods to deal with the nonlinear optimization problem of damper distribution. In this paper, the effectiveness and the efficiency of GA on optimizing damper distribution are first evaluated by strong ground motions associated with the collapse failure. A practical optimization framework using GA and NRH analysis is proposed for optimizing the distribution of the fluid viscous dampers within the moment resisting frames (MRF) regarding the improvements of large drifts under intensive seismic context. Both a 10-storey and a 20-storey building are involved to explore higher mode effect. A far-fault and a near-fault earthquake environment are also considered for the frames under different seismic intensity levels. To evaluate the improvements obtained from the GA optimization regarding the collapse performance of the buildings, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is conducted and comparisons are made between the GA damper distribution and stiffness proportional damping distribution on the collapse probability of the retrofitted frames.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제61권6호
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• pp.701-709
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• 2017

Seismic dissipation devices can play a crucial role in mitigating earthquake damages, loss of life and post-event repair and downtime costs. This research investigates the use of ring springs with high-force-to-volume (HF2V) dissipaters to create damage-free, recentring connections and structures. HF2V devices are passive rate-dependent extrusion-based devices with high energy absorption characteristics. Ring springs are passive energy dissipation devices with high self-centring capability to reduce the residual displacements. Dynamic behaviour of a system with nonlinear structural stiffness and supplemental hybrid damping via HF2V devices and ring spring dampers is used to investigate the design space and potential. HF2V devices are modelled with design forces equal to 5% and 10% of seismic weight and ring springs are modelled with loading stiffness values of 20% and 40% of initial structural stiffness and respective unloading stiffness of 7% and 14% of structural stiffness (equivalent to 35% of their loading stiffness). Using a suite of 20 design level earthquake ground motions, nonlinear response spectra for 8 different configurations are generated. Results show up to 50% reduction in peak displacements and greater than 80% reduction in residual displacements of augmented structure compared to the baseline structure. These gains come at a cost of a significant rise in the base shear values up to 200% mainly as a result of the force contributed by the supplemental devices.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.43-67
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• 2010

A gradient-based evolutionary optimization methodology is presented for finding the optimal design of both the added dampers and their supporting members to minimize an objective function of a linear multi-storey structure subjected to the critical ground acceleration. The objective function is taken as the sum of the stochastic interstorey drifts. A frequency-dependent viscoelastic damper and the supporting member are treated as a vibration control device. Due to the added stiffness by the supplemental viscoelastic damper, the variable critical excitation needs to be updated simultaneously within the evolutionary phase of the optimal damper placement. Two different models of the entire damper unit are investigated. The first model is a detailed model referred to as "the 3N model" where the relative displacement in each component (i.e., the spring and the dashpot) of the damper unit is defined. The second model is a simpler model referred to as "the N model" where the entire damper unit is converted into an equivalent frequency-dependent Kelvin-Voigt model. Numerical analyses for 3 and 10-storey building models are conducted to investigate the characters of the optimal design using these models and to examine the validity of the proposed technique.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.909-922
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• 2014

In this paper, we present an alternative seismic design strategy for cable stayed bridges with concrete pylons when subjected to strong ground motions. The comparison of conventional seismic design using supplemental dampers (strategy A) and the new strategy using nonlinear seismic design of pylon columns (strategy B) is exemplified by one typical medium span cable stayed bridge subjected to strong ground motions from 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake and 2008 China Wenchuan earthquake. We first conducted the optimization of damper parameters according to strategy A in response to the distinct features that strong ground motions contain. And then we adopted strategy B to carry out seismic analysis by introducing the elastic-plastic elements that allowing plasticity development in the pylon columns. The numerical results show that via strategy A, the earthquake induced structural responses can be kept in the desired range provided with the proper damping parameters, however, the extra cost of unusual dampers will be inevitable. For strategy B, the pylon columns may not remain elastic and certain plasticity developed, but the seismic responses of the foundation will be greatly decreased, meanwhile, the displacement at the top of pylon seems to be not affected much by the yielding of pylon columns, which indicates the pylon nonlinear design can be an alternative design strategy when strong ground motions have to be considered for the bridge.