• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.785-808
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• 2016

An innovative Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connection, called Tubular Web RBS connection (TW-RBS), has been recently introduced and its performance has been numerically investigated in some earlier studies. The TW-RBS connection is a kind of accordion-web RBS connection in which part of the flat web of the beam is replaced by a steel tube at the expected region of the plastic hinge. This paper presents experimental results of three TW-RBS connections under cyclic loading. Obtained results indicated that TW-RBS reduces contribution of the beam web to the whole moment strength and creates a ductile fuse far from components of the beam-to-column connection. Besides, TW-RBS connection can increase story drift capacity up to 9% in the case of shallow beams which is much more than those stipulated by the current seismic codes. Based on the experimental results, the tubular web in the plastic hinge region improves lateral-torsional buckling stability of the beam such that only local buckling of the beam flange at the center of the reduced section was observed during the tests. In order to achieve a better understanding, behavior of all TW-RBS specimens are also numerically investigated and compared with those of experimental results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.279-293
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• 2019

The overall seismic performance of existing pre 1960-70s reinforced concrete (RC) structures is significantly affected by the inadequate length of columns' lap-spliced reinforcement. Due to this crucial structural deficiency, the cyclic response is dominated by premature bond - slip failure, strength and stiffness degradation, poor energy dissipation capacity and low ductility. Recent earthquakes worldwide highlighted the importance of improving the load transfer mechanism between lap-spliced bars, while it was clearly demonstrated that the failure of lap splices may result in a devastating effect on structural integrity. Extensive experimental and analytical research was carried out herein, to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of strengthening techniques applied to RC columns with lap-spliced reinforcement and also accurately predict the columns' response during an earthquake. Ten large scale cantilever column subassemblages, representative of columns found in existing pre 1970s RC structures, were constructed and strengthened by steel or RC jacketing. The enhanced specimens were imposed to earthquake-type loading and their lateral response was evaluated with respect to the hysteresis of two original and two control subassemblages. The main variables examined were the lap splice length, the steel jacket width and the amount of additional confinement offered by the jackets. Moreover, an analytical formulation proposed by Tsonos (2007a, 2019) was modified appropriately and applied to the lap splice region, to calculate shear stress developed in the concrete and predict if yielding of reinforcement is achieved. The accuracy of the analytical method was checked against experimental results from both the literature and the experimental work included herein.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2019

Reinforced Concrete (RC) shear walls are widely used in Nuclear power plants as effective lateral force resisting elements of the structure and these may experience nonlinear behavior for higher earthquake demand. Short shear walls of aspect ratio less than 1.5 generally experience combined shear flexure interaction. This paper presents the results of the displacement-controlled experiments performed on six RC short shear walls with varying aspect ratios (1, 1.25 and 1.5) for monotonic and reversed quasi-static cyclic loading. Simulation of the shear walls is then carried out by Finite element modeling and also by macro modeling considering the coupled shear and flexure behaviour. The shear response is estimated by softened truss theory using the concrete model given by Vecchio and Collins (1994) with a modification in softening part of the model and flexure response is estimated using moment curvature relationship. The accuracy of modeling is validated by comparing the simulated response with experimental one. Moreover, based on the experimental work a multi-linear hysteretic model is proposed for short shear walls. Finally ultimate load, drift, ductility, stiffness reduction and failure pattern of the shear walls are studied in details and hysteretic energy dissipation along with damage index are evaluated.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.83-93
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• 2022

In this study, to verify the structural performance of the Composite Joint System (CJS) hybrid structural model, a cyclic load test was performed and evaluated and verified through the test. To verify the structural performance of the CJS hybrid structural systems' joint and evaluate the seismic performance, four three-dimensional real-size specimens were developed with three internal beam-column specimens and one external beam-column specimen. The three interior column specimens were classified by different methods of joining the upper column and lower column, and the same bonding method as the primary specimen was used for the exterior column. The structural performances in terms of drift, strength, and energy dissipation capacity were analyzed and compared based on the experimental results. From the displacement-based loading experiment, all specimens showed a lateral drift of 4.0% without any significant strength drop and stable energy dissipation capacity.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.5
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• pp.529-540
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• 2020

The mechanical properties of timber construction have drawn more attention after the 2013 Lushan earthquake. A strong desire to preserve this ancient architectural styles has sprung up in recent years, especially for residential buildings of the mountainous areas. In the column-and-tie timber construction, continuous-tenon joints are the most common structural form to connect the chuanfang (similar to the beam in conventional structures) and the column. To study the cyclic performance of the continuous-tenon joints in column-and-tie timber construction, the reversed lateral cyclic loading tests were carried out on three 3/4 scale specimens with different section heights of the chuanfang. The mechanical behavior was assessed by studying the ultimate bending capacity, deformation ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Test results showed that the slippage of chuanfang occurred when the specimens entered the plastic stage, and the slippage degree increased with the increase of the section height of chuanfang. An obvious plastic deformation of the chuanfang occurred due to the mutual squeezing between the column and chuanfang. A significant pinching was observed on the bending moment-rotation curves, and it was more pronounced as the section height of chuanfang increased. The further numerical investigations showed that the flexural capacity and initial stiffness of the continuous-tenon joints increased with the increase of friction coefficient between the chuanfang and the column, and a more obvious increasing of bending moment occurred after the material yielding. The compressive strength perpendicular to grain of the material played a more significant role in the ultimate bending capacity of continuous-tenon joints than the compressive strength parallel to grain.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1167-1184
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• 2015

Despite considerable life casualty and financial loss resulting from past earthquakes, many existing steel buildings are still seismically vulnerable as they have no lateral resistance or at least need some sort of retrofitting. Passive control methods with decreasing seismic demand and increasing ductility reduce rate of vulnerability of structures against earthquakes. One of the most effective and practical passive control methods is to use a shear panel system working as a ductile fuse in the structure. The shear Panel System, SPS, is located vertically between apex of two chevron braces and the flange of the floor beam. Seismic energy is highly dissipated through shear yielding of shear panel web while other elements of the structure remain almost elastic. In this paper, lateral behavior and related benefits of this system with narrow-flange link beams is experimentally investigated in chevron braced simple steel frames. For this purpose, five specimens with IPE (narrow-flange I section) shear panels were examined. All of the specimens showed high ductility and dissipated almost all input energy imposed to the structure. For example, maximum SPS shear distortion of 0.128-0.156 rad, overall ductility of 5.3-7.2, response modification factor of 7.1-11.2, and finally maximum equivalent viscous damping ratio of 35.5-40.2% in the last loading cycle corresponding to an average damping ratio of 26.7-30.6% were obtained. It was also shown that the beam, columns and braces remained elastic as expected. Considering this fact, by just changing the probably damaged shear panel pieces after earthquake, the structure can still be continuously used as another benefit of this proposed retrofitting system without the need to change the floor beam.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.51-61
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• 2003

This research is a park of a research program to develope a new design method for reinforced concrete bridge columns under axial load and cyclic lateral load. The objectives of this paper are to investigate the relationship between curvature ductility and displacement ductility and to propose a correlation equation for designing of reinforced concrete bridge columns under axial load and cyclic lateral load. Computer program NARCC was used for parametric study, which was proved to provide good and conservative analytical result especially for deformation capacity and ductility factor compared with test result. A total of 7,200 spirally reinforced concrete columns were selected considering the main variables such as section diameter, aspect ratio, concrete strength, yielding strength of longitudinal and confinement steel, longitudinal steel ratio, axial load ratio, and confinement steel ratio. A new equation between curvature ductility factor displacement ductility factor with the aspect ratio was proposed by investigation of 21,600 data produced from the selected column models by applying 3 different definitions of yield displacement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.323-331
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• 2020

Pile foundation is widely used for railway bridges in loess throughout northwestern China. Modeling of the loess-pile interaction is an essential part for seismic analysis of bridge with pile foundation at seismically active regions. A quasi-static test is carried out to investigate the hysteretic behaviors of pile foundation in collapsible loess. The failure characteristics of the bridge pile-loess system under the cyclic lateral loading are summarized. From the test results, the energy dissipation, stiffness degradation and ductility of the pile foundation in loess are analyzed. Therefore, a bilinear model with stiffness degradation is recommended for the nonlinearity of the bridge pier-pile-loess system. It can be found that the stiffness of the bridge pier-pile-loess system decreases quickly in the initial stage, and then becomes more slowly with the increase of the displacement ductility. The equivalent viscous damping ratio is defined as the ratio of the dissipated energy in one cycle of hysteresis curves and increases with the lateral displacement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.115-130
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• 2017

A new type of moment-resisting bolted connection was developed for use in composite steel- concrete construction to connect composite open section steel beams to concrete filled steel square tubular columns. The connection was made possible using anchored blind bolts along with two through bolts. It was designed to act compositely with the in-situ reinforced concrete slab to achieve an enhanced stiffness and strength. The developed connection was incorporated in the design of a medium rise (five storey) commercial building which was located in low to medium seismicity regions. The lateral load resisting system for the design building consisted of moment resisting frames in two directions. A major full scale test on a sub-assembly of a perimeter moment-resisting frame of the model building was conducted to study the system behaviour incorporating the proposed connection. The behaviour of the proposed connection and its interaction with the floor slab under cyclic loading representing the earthquake events with return periods of 500 years and 2500 years was investigated. The proposed connection was categorized as semi rigid for unbraced frames based on the classification method presented in Eurocode 3. Furthermore, the proposed connection, composite with the floor slab, successfully provided adequate lateral load resistance for the model building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.251-269
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• 2016

In common structural systems, there are some limitations to provide adequate lateral stiffness, high ductility, and architectural openings simultaneously. Consequently, the concept of T-Resisting Frame (TRF) has been introduced to improve the performance of structures. In this study, Configuration of TRF is a Vertical I-shaped Plate Girder (V.P.G) which is placed in the middle of the span and connected to side columns by two Horizontal Plate Girders (H.P.Gs) at each story level. System performance is improved by utilizing rigid connections in link beams (H.P.Gs). Plastic deformation leads to tension field action in H.P.Gs and causes energy dissipation in TRF; therefore, V.P.G. High plastic deformation in web of TRF's members affects the ductility of system. Moreover, in order to prevent shear buckling in web of TRF's members and improve overall performance of the system, appropriate criteria for placement of web stiffeners are presented in this study. In addition, an experimental study is conducted by applying cyclic loading and using finite element models. As a result, hysteresis curves indicate adequate lateral stiffness, stable hysteretic behavior, and high ductility factor of 6.73.