• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2015

Shimizu Corporation Tokyo Headquarters, one of the city's leading office buildings, features many pioneering technologies that contribute to a sustainable society through environmental stewardship and a sophisticated disaster management facility. In terms of structural engineering, a seismic isolation system incorporating reinforced concrete core walls and precast concrete perimeter frames create a robust structure in the event of a large earthquake. In addition to the seismic resistance of the structure, several pioneering construction methods and materials are adopted. This office building can serve as a basis for new design and construction approaches and methodologies to ensure safe and economical structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2024

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars have now been widely adopted as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcements in infrastructure and civil industries worldwide due variety of merits. This paper presents a numerical methodology to investigate FRP bar-reinforced beam-column joint behavior under quasi-static loading. The proposed numerical model is validated with test results considering load-deflection behavior, damage pattern at beam-column joint, and strain variation in reinforcements, wherein the results are in agreement. The numerical model is subsequently employed for parametric investigation to enhance the end-span beam-column joint performance using different joint reinforcement systems. To reduce the manufacturing issue of bend in the FRP bar, the headed FRP bar is employed in a beam-column joint, and performance was investigated at different column axial loads. Headed bar-reinforced beam-column joints show better performance as compared to beam-column joints having an L-bar in terms of concrete damage, load-carrying capacity, and joint shear strength. The applicability and efficiency of FRP bars at different story heights have also been investigated with varying column axial loads.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.435-451
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• 2013

High-rise buildings are a common feature of urban cities around the world. These flexible structures frequently exhibit large vibration due to strong winds and earthquakes. Structural control has been employed as an effective means to mitigate excessive responses; however, structural control mechanisms that can be used in tall buildings are limited primarily to mass and liquid dampers. An attractive alternative can be found in outrigger damping systems, where the bending deformation of the building is transformed into shear deformation across dampers placed between the outrigger and the perimeter columns. The outrigger system provides additional damping that can reduce structural responses, such as the floor displacements and accelerations. This paper investigates the potential of using smart dampers, specifically magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers, in the outrigger system. First, a high-rise building is modeled to portray the St. Francis Shangri-La Place in Philippines. The optimal performance of the outrigger damping system for mitigation of seismic responses in terms of damper size and location also is subsequently evaluated. The efficacy of the semi-active damped outrigger system is finally verified through numerical simulation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.447-470
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• 2014

Numerical simulation of the non-linear behavior of (RC) structural walls subjected to severe earthquake ground motions requires a reliable modeling approach that includes important material characteristics and behavioral response features. The objective of this paper is to optimize a simplified method for the assessment of the seismic response and damage development analyses of an RC structural wall building using macro-element model. The first stage of this study investigates effectiveness and ability of the macro-element model in predicting the flexural nonlinear response of the specimen based on previous experimental test results conducted in UCLA. The sensitivity of the predicted wall responses to changes in model parameters is also assessed. The macro-element model is next used to examine the dynamic behavior of the structural wall building-all the way from elastic behavior to global instability, by applying an approximate Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), based on Uncoupled Modal Response History Analysis (UMRHA), setting up nonlinear single degree of freedom systems. Finally, the identification of the global stiffness decrease as a function of a damage variable is carried out by means of this simplified methodology. Responses are compared at various locations on the structural wall by conducting static and dynamic pushover analyses for accurate estimation of seismic performance of the structure using macro-element model. Results obtained with the numerical model for rectangular wall cross sections compare favorably with experimental responses for flexural capacity, stiffness, and deformability. Overall, the model is qualified for safety assessment and design of earthquake resistant structures with structural walls.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.233-251
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• 2011

The seismic provisions of the current edition (2005) of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) differ significantly from the earlier edition. The current seismic provisions are based on the uniform hazard spectra corresponding to 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years, as opposed to the seismic hazard level with 10% probablity of exeedance in 50 years used in the earlier edition. Moreover, the current code is presented in an objective-based format where the design is performed based on an acceptable solution. In the light of these changes, an assessment of the expected performance of the buildings designed according to the requirements of the current edition of NBCC would be very useful. In this paper, the seismic performance of a set of six, twelve, and eighteen story buildings of regular geometry and with concrete moment resisting frames, designed for Vancouver western Canada, has been evaluated. Although the effects of non-structural elements are not considered in the design, the non-structural elements connected to the lateral load resisting systems affect the seismic performance of a building. To simulate the non-structural elements, infill panels are included in some frame models. Spectrum compatible artificial ground motion records and scaled actual accelerograms have been used for evaluating the dynamic response. The performance has been evaluated for each building under various levels of seismic hazard with different probabilities of exceedance. From the study it has been observed that, although all the buildings achieved the life-safety performance as assumed in the design provisions of the building code, their performance characteristics are found to be non-uniform.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.657-671
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• 2015

The level of ductility is determined by depending on the intended use of the building, the region's seismic characteristics and the type of structural system when buildings are planned by engineers. Major portion of seismic energy is intended to be consumed in the plastic zone in structural systems of high ductility, so the occurrence of damages in load bearing and non-load bearing structural elements is accepted in planning stage under severe earthquakes. However, these damages must be limited among specific values in order not to endanger buildings in terms of the bearing capacity. Isolators placed between the basement and upper structure make buildings behave elastically by reducing the effects of seismic loads and improving seismic performance of building significantly. Thus, damages can be limited among desired values. In this study, the effectiveness of seismic isolation is investigated on both fixed based and seismic isolated models of a hospital building with high ductility level with regard to lateral displacements, internal forces, structural periods and cost of the building. Layered rubber bearings are interposed between the base of the structure and foundation. Earthquake analysis of the building are performed using earthquake records in time domain (Kocaeli, Loma Prieta and Landers). Results obtained from three-dimensional finite element models are presented by graphs and tables in detail. That seismic isolation reduces significantly the destructive effects of earthquakes on structures is seen from the results obtained by seismic analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.263-275
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• 2022

Structural collapses can occur as a result of a dynamic amplification of either, the building's seismic response or the ground shaking by local site effects; one of the reasons is a resonance effect due to the proximity of the structural elastic fundamental period TE and the soil fundamental period TS. We evaluate the vulnerability to resonance effects in Guadalajara, México, in a three-step schema: 1) we define structural systems in the building environment of western Guadalajara, in terms of their construction materials and structural components; 2) we estimate TE with different equations, to obtain a representative value in elastic conditions for each structural system; and, 3) we evaluate the resonance vulnerability by the analysis of the ratio between TE and TS. We observe that the larger the soil fundamental period, the higher the resonance vulnerability for buildings with height between 17 and 39 m. For the sites with a low TS, the most vulnerable buildings will be those with a height between 2 and 9 m. These results can be a helpful tool for disaster prevention, by avoiding the construction of buildings with certain heights and structural characteristics that would result in a dangerous proximity between TE and TS.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.69-86
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• 2013

An efficient methodology using static test data and changes in natural frequencies is proposed to identify the damages in structural systems. The methodology consists of two main stages. In the first stage, the Damage Signal Match (DSM) technique is employed to quickly identify the most potentially damaged elements so as to reduce the number of the solution space (solution parameters). In the second stage, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach is presented to accurately determine the actual damage extents using the first stage results. One numerical case study by using a planar truss and one experimental case study by using a full-scale steel truss structure are used to verify the proposed hybrid method. The identification results show that the proposed methodology can identify the location and severity of damage with a reasonable level of accuracy, even when practical considerations limit the number of measurements to only a few for a complex structure.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.589-611
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• 2016

The primary objectives of this research are to investigate the energy factor response of steel moment resisting frame (MRF) systems equipped with fuses subject to ground motions and to develop an energy-based evaluation approach for evaluating the damage-control behavior of the system. First, the energy factor of steel MRF systems with fuses below the resilience threshold is derived utilizing the energy balance equation considering bilinear oscillators with significant post-yielding stiffness ratio, and the effect of structural nonlinearity on the energy factor is investigated by conducting a parametric study covering a wide range of parameters. A practical transformation approach is also proposed to associate the energy factor of steel MRF systems with fuses with classic design spectra based on elasto-plastic systems. Then, the energy balance is extended to structural systems, and an energy-based procedure for damage-control evaluation is proposed and a damage-control index is also derived. The approach is then applied to two types of steel MRF systems with fuses to explore the applicability for quantifying the damage-control behavior. The rationality of the proposed approach and the accuracy for identifying the damage-control behavior are demonstrated by nonlinear static analyses and incremental dynamic analyses utilizing prototype structures.

• Computational Structural Engineering : An International Journal
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2003

A recently developed semi-active control system employing magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers is applied to vibration control of a wind excited tall building. The semi-active control system with MR fluid dampers appears to have the reliability of passive control devices and the adaptability of fully active control systems. The system requires only small power source, which is critical during severe events, when the main power source may fail. Numerical simulation studies are performed to demonstrate the efficiency of the MR dampers on the third ASCE benchmark problem. Multiple MR dampers are assumed to be installed in the 76-story building. Genetic algorithm is applied to determine the optimal locations and capacities of the MR dampers. Clipped optimal controller is designed to control the MR dampers based on the acceleration feedback. To verify the robustness with respect to the variation of the external wind force, several cases with different wind forces are considered in the numerical simulation. Simulation results show that the semi-actively controlled MR dampers can effectively reduce both the peak and RMS responses the tall building under various wind force conditions. The control performance of the MR dampers for wind is found to be fairly similar to the performance of an active tuned mass damper.