• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.359-371
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• 2018

Strong seismic events commonly cause large drift and deformation, and functionality failures in the superstructures. One way to prevent functionality failures is to design structures which are ductile and flexible through yielding when subjected to strong ground excitations. By developing forces that assist motion as "negative stiffness forces", yielding can be achieved. In this paper, we adopt the weakening and damping method to achieve a new approach to reduce all of the structural responses by further adjusting damping phase. A semi-active control system is adopted to perform the experiments. In this adaptation, negative stiffness forces through certain devices are used in weakening phase to reduce structural strength. Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers are then added to preserve stability of the structure. To adjust the voltage in MR dampers, an inverse model is employed in the control system to command MR dampers and generate the desired control forces, where a velocity control algorithm produces initial required control force. An extensive numerical study is conducted to evaluate proposed methodology by using the smart base-isolated benchmark building. Totally, nine control systems are examined to study proposed strategy. Based on the numerical results of seven earthquakes, the use of proposed strategy not only reduces base displacements, base accelerations and base shear but also leads to reduction of accelerations and inter story drifts of the superstructure. Numerical results shows that the usage of inverse model produces the desired regulated damping, thus improving the stability of the structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.295-307
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• 2021

The gap provided between adjacent structures in the metropolitan cities is mostly narrow due to architectural and financial issues. Consequently, structural pounding occurs between adjacent structures during earthquakes. It causes damages, ranging from minor local to more severe ones, especially in the case of seismically isolated buildings, due to their higher displacements. However, due to the increased flexibility of isolated buildings, the problem could become more detrimental to such structures. The effect of the seismic pounding of moat walls on the response of buildings isolated by Triple Friction Pendulum Bearing (TFPB) is investigated in this paper. To this propose, two symmetric three-dimensional models, including single-story and five-story buildings, are modeled in Opensees. Nonlinear Time History Analyses (NTHA) are performed for seismic evaluation. Also, five different sizes with four different sets of friction coefficients are considered for base isolators to cover a whole range of base isolation systems with various geometry configurations and fundamental period. The results are investigated in terms of base shear, buildings' drift, and roof acceleration. Results indicated a profound effect of poundings against moat walls. In situations of potential pounding, in some cases, the influence of impact on seismic responses of multistory buildings was more remarkable.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.293-311
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• 2016

A parametric study on the nonlinear seismic response of isolated reinforced concrete structural frame is presented. Three prototype frames designed according to the 1954 Hellenic seismic code, with number of floor ranging from 1 to 3 were considered. These low rise frames are representative of many existing reinforced concrete buildings in Greece. The efficacy of the implementation of both lead rubber bearings (LRB) and friction pendulum isolators (FPI) base isolation systems were examined. The selection of the isolation devices was made according to the ratio $T_{is}/T_{fb}$, where Tis is the period of the base isolation system and $T_{bf}$ is the period of the fixed-base building. The main purpose of this comprehensive study is to investigate the effect of the isolation system period on the seismic response of inadequately designed low rise buildings. Thus, the implementation of isolation systems which correspond to the ratio $T_{is}/T_{fb}$ that values from 3 to 5 is studied. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed to investigate the response of the isolated structures using a set of three natural seismic ground motions. The evaluation of each retrofitting case was made in terms of storey drift and storey shear force while in view of serviceability it was made in terms of storey acceleration. Finally, the maximum developed displacements and the residual displacements of the isolation systems are presented.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.231-238
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• 1997

Many methods have been proposed for achieving optimum performance of structures subjected to earthquake excitation. The conventional approach requires that structures passively resist earthquakes through a combination of strength, deformability, and energy absorption. Base isolation is a technique for mitigating the effects of earthquakes on structures through the introduction of flexibility and energy absorption capability. In this paper, a parametric study of effectiveness of isolation systems with various main structures' properties is carried out through the response spectrum analysis. It is shown that, most base isolators with its longer period and higher damping can significantly reduce the base shear force transmitted to the structures.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.395-402
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• 2003

Characteristics of base isolators including frictional and hysteretic types may be described by Bouc-Wen model. A probabilistic optimum design method of the base isolation system using Bouc-Wen model is presented in this paper. For optimum design, the objective function and constraints are derived based on the stochastic responses of the system. As a numerical example, the optimum design problem of a three-story base isolated shear type structure is formulated and solved by the sequential quadratic programming method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1223-1240
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• 2014

Seismic isolation has been established as an effective earthquake-resistant design method and the lead rubber bearings (LRBs) are among the most commonly used seismic isolation systems. In the scientific literature, a sharp bilinear model is often used for capturing the hysteretic behaviour of the LRBs in the analysis of seismically isolated structures, although the actual behaviour of the LRBs can be more accurately represented utilizing smoothed plasticity, as captured by the Bouc-Wen model. Discrepancies between these two models are quantified in terms of the computed peak relative displacements at the isolation level, as well as the peak inter-storey deflections and the absolute top-floor accelerations, for the case of base-isolated buildings modelled as multi degree-of-freedom systems. Numerical simulations under pulse-like ground motions have been performed to assess the effect of non-linear parameters of the seismic isolation system and characteristics of both the superstructure and the earthquake excitation, on the accuracy of the computed peak structural responses. Through parametric analyses, this paper assesses potential inaccuracies of the computed peak seismic response when the sharp bilinear model is employed for modelling the LRBs instead of the more accurate and smoother Bouc-Wen model.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.699-706
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• 2014

The probabilistic seismic performance of a standard Korean nuclear power plant (NPP) with an idealized isolation is investigated in the present work. A probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the Wolsong site on the Korean peninsula is performed by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) as an earthquake intensity measure. A procedure is reported on the categorization and selection of two sets of ground motions of the Tohoku earthquake, i.e. long-period and common as Set A and Set B respectively, for the nonlinear time history response analysis of the base-isolated NPP. Limit state values as multiples of the displacement responses of the NPP base isolation are considered for the fragility estimation. The seismic risk of the NPP is further assessed by incorporation of the rate of frequency exceedance and conditional failure probability curves. Furthermore, this framework attempts to show the unacceptable performance of the isolated NPP in terms of the probabilistic distribution and annual probability of limit states. The comparative results for long and common ground motions are discussed to contribute to the future safety of nuclear facilities against drastic events like Tohoku.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 1995

This study develops 2-D analysis method of a base-isolated pool structure, and verifies the method through shaking table test using a scaled model. A wall of the pool structure is modeled as lumped mass, and added mass of the fluid is imposed on the nodes of the structure to consider the hydrodynamic effect of contained fluid. The equation of motion of base-isolated pool structure is obtained by coupling of two equations for superstructure composed of wall and fluid, and for bottom slab and isolator. The scaled model for shaking table test is made with transparent acryle, and 4-high damping laminated rubber bearings are used. The responses of the scaled model by the test are generally good agreement with those by the analysis. It is shown that 2-D analysis method gives somewhat conservative results.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.161-171
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• 2015

A series of tests was conducted for full-scale single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridges using a system of multiple shaking tables. The 2-span bridge length was 28 m, and the pylon height was 10.2 m. 4 different base conditions were considered: the fixed condition, RB (rubber bearings), LRB (lead rubber bearings), and HDRB (high damping rubber bearings). Based on investigation of the seismic response, the accelerations and displacements in the axial direction of the isolated bridge were increased compared to non-isolated case. However, the strain of the pylon was decreased, because the major mode of the structure was changed to translation for the axial direction due to the dynamic mass. The response of the cable bridge could differ from the desired response according to the locations and characteristics of the seismic isolator. Therefore, caution is required in the design and prediction in regard to the location and behavior of the seismic isolator.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-100
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• 2022

Limiting the displacement of seismic isolators causes a pounding phenomenon under severe earthquakes. Therefore, the ASCE 7-16 has provided minimum criteria for the design of the isolated building. In this research the seismic response of isolated buildings by Triple Friction Pendulum Isolator (TFPI) under the impact, expected, and unexpected mass eccentricity was evaluated. Also, the effect of different design parameters on the seismic behavior of structural and nonstructural elements was found. For this, a special steel moment frame structure with a surrounding moat wall was designed according to the criteria, by considering different response modification coefficients (RI), and 20% mass eccentricity in one direction. Then, different values of these parameters and the damping of the base isolation were evaluated. The results show that the structural elements have acceptable behavior after impact, but the nonstructural components are placed in a moderate damage range after impact and the used improved methods could not ameliorate the level of damage. The reduction in the RI and the enhancement of the isolator's damping are beneficial up to a certain point for improving the seismic response after impact. The moat wall reduces torque and maximum absolute acceleration (MAA) due to unexpected enhancement of mass eccentricity. However, drifts of some stories increase. Also, the difference between the response of story drift by expected and unexpected mass eccentricity is less. This indicates that the minimum requirement displacement according to ASCE 7-16 criteria lead to acceptable results under the unexpected enhancement of mass eccentricity.