• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.999-1028
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• 2015

Despite the fact that the fundamental period appears to be one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design of structures according to the modal superposition method, the so far available in the literature proposals for its estimation are often conflicting with each other making their use uncertain. Furthermore, the majority of these proposals do not take into account the presence of infills walls into the structure despite the fact that infill walls increase the stiffness and mass of structure leading to significant changes in the fundamental period numerical value. Toward this end, this paper presents a detailed and indepth analytical investigation on the parameters that affect the fundamental period of reinforce concrete structure. The calculated values of the fundamental period are compared against those obtained from the seismic code and equations proposed by various researchers in the literature. From the analysis of the results it has been found that the number of storeys, the span length, the stiffness of the infill wall panels, the location of the soft storeys and the soil type are crucial parameters that influence the fundamental period of RC buildings.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.1067-1076
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• 2014

In this study, a series of hydraulic experiments are conducted to measure wave pressure on vertical structures with incident solitary waves that well represent characteristics of tsunamis. The pressure transducers measure time histories of wave pressure according to wave height to see pressure distribution. The force of incident solitary wave is estimated from integrated pressure distributions and represented with square and cylindrical columns. Experimental measurements are compared with the predictions of existing empirical formulas frequently used to design of coastal structures.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.18-24
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• 2012

This paper concerned with the behaviour of shaping formation and the erection for SCST structure by cable-tensioning for three kinds of structure models. The joint types of experimental models are ball type joints, bolt type joints with gusset plates, and bolt type joints. The feasibility of the proposed shaping method and the reliability of the established geometric model were confirmed with a nonlinear finite element analysis and an experimental investigation for full size scaled pyramid test model and three kinds of SCST structure models. The characteristic of the behaviour of each joint type is shown in the shaping test for practical design purposes. As a results, the behaviour characteristics of joints is very significant in shaping analysis of space structures. So the joint type should be considered in the design and analysis of the shape formation for space structures. Also, in the special field condition, it could be a fast and economical method for constructing the space structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.337-351
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• 2017

In the present study a capacity spectrum method based on constant ductility inelastic spectra to estimate the seismic performance of structures equipped with elastic viscous dampers is presented. As the definition of the structures' effective damping, due to the damping system, is necessary, an alternative method to specify the effective damping ratio ${\xi}eff$ is presented. Moreover, damping reduction factors (B) are introduced to generate high damping elastic demand spectra. Given the elastic spectra for damping ratio ${\xi}eff$, the performance point of the structure can be obtained by relationships that relate the strength demand reduction factor (R) with the ductility demand factor (${\mu}$). As such expressions that link the above quantities, known as R - ${\mu}$ - Τ relationships, for different damping levels are presented. Moreover, corrective factors (Bv) for the pseudo-velocity spectra calculation are reported for different levels of damping and ductility in order to calculate with accuracy the values of the viscous dampers velocities. Finally, to evaluate the results of the proposed method, the whole process is applied to a four-storey reinforced concrete frame structure and to a six-storey steel structure, both equipped with elastic viscous dampers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.423-435
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• 2018

There are presently two general ways of accounting for hazardous metal creep in structural fire analyses: either we incorporate creep strains implicitly in hardening model ('implicit-creep' plasticity) or we account for creep explicitly ('explicit-creep' plasticity). The first approach is simpler and usually used for fast engineering applications, e.g., following proposals of EN 1993-1-2. Prioritizing this approach without consideration of its limitations, however, may lead to significant error. So far the possible levels of such error have been demonstrated by few researchers for individual structural elements (i.e., beams and columns). This paper, however, presents analyses also for selected beam-girder assemblies. Special numerical models are developed correspondingly and they are validated and verified. Their important novelty is that they do not only account for creep in individual members but also for creep in between-member connections. The paper finally shows that outside the declared applicability limits of the implicit-creep plasticity models, the failure times predicted by the applied alternative explicit-creep models can be as much as 40% shorter. Within the limits, however, the discrepancies might be negligible for majority of cases with the exception of about 20% discrepancies found in one analysed example.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.517-532
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• 2000

A direct output feedback control scheme was recently proposed by the authors for single-story building structures resting on flexible soil body. In this paper, the control scheme is extended to mitigate the seismic responses of multi-story buildings. Soil-structure interaction is taken into account in two parts: input at the soil-structure interface/foundation and control algorithm. The former reflects the effect on ground motions and is monitored in real time with accelerometers at foundation. The latter includes the effect on the dynamic characteristics of structures, which is formulated by modifying the classical linear quadratic regulator based on the fundamental mode shape of the soil-structure system. Numerical result on the study of a $\frac{1}{4}$-scale three-story structure, supported by a viscoelastic half-space of soil mass, have demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is robust and very effective in suppressing the earthquake-induced vibration in building structures even supported on a flexible soil mass. Parametric studies are performed to understand how soil damping and flexibility affect the effectiveness of active tendon control. The selection of weighting matrix and effect of soil property uncertainty are investigated in detail for practical applications.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.181-197
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• 2015

Assessing the condition of paint on civil structures is an important but challenging and costly task, in particular when it comes to large and complex structures. Current practices of visual inspection are labour-intensive and time-consuming to perform. In addition, this task usually relies on the experience and subjective judgment of individual inspectors. In this study, hyperspectral imaging and classification techniques are proposed as a method to objectively assess the state of the paint on a civil or other structure. The ultimate objective of the work is to develop a technology that can provide precise and automatic grading of paint condition and assessment of degradation due to age or environmental factors. Towards this goal, we acquired hyperspectral images of steel surfaces located at long (mid-range) and short distances on the Sydney Harbour Bridge with an Acousto-Optics Tunable filter (AOTF) hyperspectral camera (consisting of 21 bands in the visible spectrum). We trained a multi-class Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifier to automatically assess the grading of the paint from hyperspectral signatures. Our results demonstrate that the classifier generates highly accurate assessment of the paint condition in comparison to the judgement of human experts.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.257-273
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• 2015

Numerical value of correlation between effective parameters in the strength of a structure is as important as its stochastic properties in determining the safety of the structure. In this article investigation is made about the variation of coefficient of correlation between effective parameters in corrosion initiation time of reinforcement and the time of concrete cover cracking in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Presence of many parameters and also error in measurement of these parameters results in uncertainty in determination of corrosion initiation and the time to crack initiation. In this paper, assuming diffusion process as chloride ingress mechanism in RC structures and considering random properties of effective parameters in this model, correlation between input parameters and predicted time to corrosion is calculated using the Monte Carlo (MC) random sampling. Results show the linear correlation between corrosion initiation time and effective input parameters increases with increasing uncertainty in the input parameters. Diffusion coefficient, concrete cover, surface chloride concentration and threshold chloride concentration have the highest correlation coefficient respectively. Also the uncertainty in the concrete cover has the greatest impact on the coefficient of correlation of corrosion initiation time and the time of crack initiation due to the corrosion phenomenon.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.339-352
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• 2015

Ancient masonry towers constitute a relevant part of the cultural heritage of humanity. Their earthquake protection is a topic of great concern among researchers due to the strong damage suffered by these brittle and massive structures through the history. The identification of the seismic behavior and failure of towers under seismic loading is complex. This strongly depends on many factors such as soil characteristics, geometry, mechanical properties of masonry and heavy mass, as well as the earthquake frequency content. A deep understanding of these aspects is the key for the correct seismic vulnerability evaluation of towers and to design the most suitable retrofitting measure. Recent tendencies on the seismic retrofitting of historical structures by means of prestressing are related to the use of smart materials. The most famous cases of application of prestressing in towers were discussed. Compared to horizontal prestressing, vertical post-tensioning is aimed at improving the seismic behavior of towers by reducing damage with the application of an overall distribution of compressive stresses at key locations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.653-664
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• 2014

Wind fragility analysis provides a quantitative instrument for delineating the safety performance of civil structures under hazardous wind loading conditions such as cyclones and tornados. It has attracted and would be expected to continue to attract intensive research spotlight particularly in the nowadays worldwide context of adapting to the changing climate. One of the challenges encumbering efficacious assessment of the safety performance of existing civil structures is the possible incompleteness of the structural appraisal data. Addressing the issue of the data missingness, the study presented in this paper forms a first attempt to investigate the feasibility of using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and Bayesian techniques to predict the wind fragilities of existing civil structures. Numerical examples of typical linear or hysteretic shear frames are introduced with the wind loads derived from a widely used power spectral density function. Specifically, the application of the maximum a posteriori estimates of the distribution parameters for the story stiffness is examined, and a surrogate model is developed and applied to facilitate the nonlinear response computation when studying the fragilities of the hysteretic shear frame involved.