• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.359-374
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• 2017

The seismic events in Northern Italy, May 2012, have revealed the seismic vulnerability of typical Italian precast industrial buildings. The aim of this paper is to present a seismic fragility model for Italian RC precast buildings, to be used in earthquake loss estimation and seismic risk assessment by comparing two building typologies and three different codes: D.M. 3-03-1975, D.M. 16-01-1996 and current Italian building code that has been released in 2008. Based on geometric characteristics and design procedure applied, ten different building classes were identified. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed for each building class in order to generate the building stock used for the development of fragility curves trough analytical method. The probabilistic distributions of geometry were mainly obtained from data collected from 650 field surveys, while the material properties were deduced from the code in place at the time of construction or from expert opinion. The structures were modelled in 2D frameworks; since the past seismic events have identified the beam-column connection as the weakest element of precast buildings, two different modelling solutions were adopted to develop fragility curves: a simple model with post processing required to detect connection collapse and an innovative modelling solution able to reproduce the real behaviour of the connection during the analysis. Fragility curves were derived using both nonlinear static and dynamic analysis.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.261-280
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• 2014

In many parts of the world, reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, designed and built in accordance with older codes, have suffered severe damage or even collapse as a result of recent near-fault earthquakes. This is particularly due to the deficiencies of most of the older (and even some of the recent) codes in dealing with near fault events. In this study, a tested three-storey frame designed for gravity loads only was selected to represent those deficient buildings. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed, followed by damage assessment procedures. The results were compared with experimental observation of the same frame showing a good match. Damage and fragility analyses of the frame subjected to 204 pulse-type motions were then performed using a selected damage model and inter-storey drifts. The results showed that the frame located in near-fault regions is extremely vulnerable to ground motions. The results also showed that the damage model better captures the damage distribution in the frame than inter-storey drifts. The first storey was identified as the most fragile and the inner columns of the first storey suffered most damage as indicated by the damage index. The findings would be helpful in the decision making process prior to the strengthening of buildings in near-fault regions.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2000

Apartment buildings have teen increasing it's height since first appearance in the late 1970 in Korea. Likewise, fire risk and the fire damage of this new dwelling type have become a serious problems. However the applying fire safety design method and regulations are minimum level of requirements based on the current fire codes. The purpose of this study is to figure out the evacuation characteristics in high-rise apartment buildings and improve countermeasure by comparison egress codes between Korea, Japan and U. S. A. The result shows that means of egress of this dwelling should be reviewed by the fire code as well as expected evacuation safety performance by a fire protection engineer to minimize fire 1osses including life safety.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.243-260
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• 2023

Indonesia has had seismic codes for earthquake-resistant structures designs since 1970 and has been updated five times to the latest in 2019. In updating the Indonesian seismic codes, seismic hazard maps for design also update, and there are changes to the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA). Indonesian seismic design uses the concept of building performance levels consisting of Immediate occupancy (IO), Life Safety (LS), and Collapse Prevention (CP). Related to this performance level, cases still found that buildings were damaged more than their performance targets after the earthquake. Based on the above issues, this study aims to analyze the performance of base isolation design on existing target buildings and analyze the seismic fragility for a case study in Indonesia. The target building is a prototype design 8-story medium-rise residential building using the reinforced concrete moment frame structure. Seismic fragility analysis uses Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) with Nonlinear Time History Analysis (NLTHA) and eleven selected ground motions based on soil classification, magnitude, fault distance, and earthquake source mechanism. The comparison result of IDA shows a trend of significant performance improvement, with the same performance level target and risk category, the base isolation structure can be used at 1.46-3.20 times higher PGA than the fixed base structure. Then the fragility analysis results show that the fixed base structure has a safety margin of 30% and a base isolation structure of 62.5% from the PGA design. This result is useful for assessing existing buildings or considering a new building's performance.

• Journal of The Korean Digital Architecture Interior Association
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2011

Occurrence of earthquakes have been increased all over the world and also, magnitude of earthquakes have been larger these days. Earthquake can be happened in Korea and is not a safe country any more. Many buildings are exposed at danger without any alternatives against earthquake in Korea. Among various kinds of buildings, school buildings are very important and urgent, because many students stays at school and young students have some difficulty to evacuate. Also, most existing school buildings in Korea were not designed considering earthquake resistant design codes. Thus, in this study, 3 types of braces were applied for seismic retrofits of existing school buildings using commercial structural analysis software and effective seismic retrofits were evaluated and discussed based on results by time history analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.391-399
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• 2017

This study investigates the effects of soft story, short columns, heavy overhangs, pounding, and construction and workmanship quality parameters on seismic response of reinforced concrete buildings through nonlinear static and dynamic procedures. The accounted parameters are selected for their common use in rapid screening of RC buildings. The 4- and 7-story buildings designed according to pre-modern codes are used to reflect majority of the existing building stock. The relative penalty scores are employed in this study to evaluate relative importance of certain irregularities in the existing rapid seismic assessment procedures. Comparison of relative scores for the irregularities considered in this study show that the overall trend is similar. The relatively small differences may be accounted for regional construction practices. It is concluded that initial-phase seismic assessment procedures based on architectural features yield in somewhat similar results independent of their bases. However, the differences in the scores emphasize the proper selection of the method based on the regional structure characteristics.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.255-266
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• 2000

Wind-induced interference effects on a building are the result of one or more adjacent buildings modifying the flow of wind around it, which may result in a significant increase or decrease in wind loads on the building. Wind loading standards and codes of practice offer little guidance to the designer for assessing the effects of interference. Experimental results on interference effects indicate that code recommendations may be significantly low (unsafe) or uneconomically conservative. The paper presents results of an extensive experimental program to study the wind flow mechanisms and to quantify the extent of wind load modifications on buildings due to interference effects. These results have been simplified and presented from the point-of-view of design and codification for the case of two buildings. Based on these results, general guidelines and limiting conditions defining wind interference are formulated and discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.127-147
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• 2011

In a companion paper as well as in earlier publications, it has been shown that in asymmetric frame buildings, designed in accordance with modern codes and subjected to strong earthquake excitations, the ductility demands at the so called "flexible" edges are consistently and substantially higher than the ductility demands at the "stiff" edges of the building. In some cases the differences in the computed ductility factors between elements at the two opposite building edges exceeded 100%. Similar findings have also been reported for code designed reinforced concrete buildings. This is an undesirable behavior as it indicates no good use of material and the possibility for overload of the "flexible" edge members with a consequent potential for premature failure. In the present paper, a design modification will be introduced that can alleviate the problem and lead to a more uniform distribution of ductility demands in the elements of all building edges. The presented results are based on the steel frames detailed in the companion paper. This investigation is another step towards more rational design of non-symmetric steel buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.355-363
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• 2019

Masonry structures in the rural areas of Turkey often damaged due to moderate and big earthquakes. After every earthquake many scientists made field investigations on the earthquake performance of these structures and gave many useful information on construction techniques. However, the newly constructed masonry buildings are still not suitable for the suggested techniques, and they are still in danger against future earthquakes. Five moderate earthquakes of moment magnitude Mw 5.3, 5.3, 5.2, 5.0, and 5.3 struck the Ayvacik-Çanakkale District of Turkey between 6 and 12 February, 2017. More than a thousand of aftershocks were occurred and most of the masonry buildings in the villages nearby main shock epicenter were affected. The author went to the earthquake field and investigated the earthquake performances of masonry structures. This paper presents the recorded acceleration data, acceleration response spectra, and the seismological aspects of these earthquakes. Besides, case studies of damaged stone masonry buildings, and failure mechanisms are discussed with illustrated photos which were taken during the field investigations. It is concluded that the damaged masonry buildings were not designed and constructed properly in accordance with the Turkish building codes or similar specifications.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-260
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• 2021

Torsional response of buildings is attributed to poor structural configurations in plan, which arises due to two factors - torsional eccentricity and torsional flexibility. Usually, building codes address effects due to the former. This study examines both of these effects. Buildings with torsional eccentricity (e.g., those with large eccentricity) and with torsional flexibility (those with torsional mode as a fundamental mode) demand large deformations of vertical elements resisting lateral loads, especially those along the building perimeter in plan. Lateral-torsional responses are studied of unsymmetrical buildings through elastic and inelastic analyses using idealised single-storey building models (with two degrees of freedom). Displacement demands on vertical elements distributed in plan are non-uniform and sensitive to characteristics of both structure and earthquake ground motion. Limits are proposed to mitigate lateral-torsional effects, which guides in proportioning vertical elements and restricts amplification of lateral displacement in them and to avoid torsional mode as the first mode. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses of multi-storey buildings are used to validate the limits proposed.