• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.487-497
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• 2017

Semi-active devices use the building's own motion to produce resistive forces and are thus strictly dissipative and require little power. Devices that independently control the binary open/closed valve state can enable novel device hysteresis loops that were not previously possible. However, some device hysteresis loops cannot be obtained without active analog valve control allowing slower, controlled release of stored energy, and is presents an ongoing limitation in obtaining the full range of possibilities offered by these devices. This in silico study develops a proportional-derivative feedback control law using a validated nonlinear device model to track an ideal diamond-shaped force-displacement response profile using active analog valve control. It is validated by comparison to the ideal shape for both sinusoidal and random seismic input motions. Structural application specific spectral analysis compares the performance for the non-linear, actively controlled case to those obtained with an ideal, linear model to validate that the potential performance will be retained when considering realistic nonlinear behaviour and the designed valve control approach. Results show tracking of the device force-displacement loop to within 3-5% of the desired ideal curve. Valve delay, rather than control law design, is the primary limiting factor, and analysis indicates a ratio of valve delay to structural period must be 1/10 or smaller to ensure adequate tracking, relating valve performance to structural period and overall device performance under control. Overall, the results show that active analog feedback control of energy release in these devices can significantly increase the range of resetable, valve-controlled semi-active device performance and hysteresis loops, in turn increasing their performance envelop and application space.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.313-320
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• 2002

A new semi-active control strategy for seismic response reduction using a neuro-controller and a magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper is proposed. The proposed control system consists of the improved neuro-controller and the bang-bang-type controller. The improved neuro-controller, which was developed by employing the training algorithm based on a cost function and the sensitivity evaluation algorithm replacing an emulator neural network, produces the desired active control force, and then the bang-bang-type controller causes the MR fluid damper to generate the desired control force, so long as this force is dissipative. In numerical simulation, a three-story building structure is semi-actively controlled by the trained neural network under the historical earthquake records. The simulation results show that the proposed semi-active neuro-control algorithm is quite effective to reduce seismic responses. In addition, the semi-active control system using MR fluid dampers has many attractive features, such as the bounded-input, bounded-output stability and small energy requirements. The results of this investigation, therefore, indicate that the proposed semi-active neuro-control strategy using MR fluid dampers could be effectively used for control of seismically excited structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.185-204
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• 2015

This study investigates the impact of the earthquake incident angle on the structural demand and the influence of ground motion selection and scaling methods on seismic directionality effects. The structural demand produced by Non-Linear Time-History Analyses (NLTHA) varies with the seismic input incidence angle. The seismic directionality effects are evaluated by subjecting four three-dimensional reinforced concrete structures to different scaled and un-scaled records oriented along nine incidence angles, whose values range between 0 and 180 degrees, with an increment of 22.5 degrees. The results show that NLTHAs performed applying the ground motion records along the principal axes underestimate the structural demand prediction, especially when plan-irregular structures are analyzed. The ground motion records generate the highest demand when applied along the lowest strength structural direction and a high energy content of the records increases the structural demand corresponding to this direction. The seismic directionality impact on structural demand is particularly important for irregular buildings subjected to un-scaled accelerograms. However, the orientation effects are much lower if spectrum-compatible combinations of scaled records are used. In both cases, irregular structures should be analyzed first with pushover analyses in order to identify the weaker structural directions and then with NLTHAs for different incidence angles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.967-973
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• 2021

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing simultaneous accidents in several reactors. This accident shows us that if there are several reactors on site, the seismic risk to multiple units is important to consider, in addition to that to single units in isolation. When a seismic event occurs, a seismic-failure correlation exists between the nuclear power plant's structures, systems, and components (SSCs) due to their seismic-response and seismic-capacity correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the multi-unit seismic risk by considering the SSCs' seismic-failure-correlation effect. In this study, a methodology is proposed to obtain the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs to calculate the risk to multi-unit facilities. This coefficient is calculated from a probabilistic multi-unit seismic-response analysis. The seismic-response and seismic-failure-correlation coefficients of the emergency diesel generators installed within the units are successfully derived via the proposed method. In addition, the distribution of the seismic-response-correlation coefficient was observed as a function of the distance between SSCs of various dynamic characteristics. It is demonstrated that the proposed methodology can reasonably derive the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs, which is the input data for multi-unit seismic probabilistic safety assessment.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2002

This paper examines the ASCE first generation benchmark problem for a seismically excited cable-stayed bridge, and proposes a new semi-active control strategy focusing on inclusion of effects of control-structure interaction. This benchmark problem focuses on a cable-stayed bridge in Cope Girardeau, Missouri, USA, for which construction is expected to be completed in 2003. Seismic considerations were strongly considered in the design of this bridge due to the location of the bridge in the New Madrid seismic zone and its critical role as a principal crossing of the Mississippi River. In this paper, magnetorheological(MR) fluid dampers are proposed as the supplemental damping devices, and a clipped-optimal control algorithm is employed. Several types of dynamic models for MR fluid dampers, such as a Bingham model, a Bouc-Wen model, and a modified Bouc-Wen model, are considered, which are obtained from data based on experimental results for full-scale dampers. Because the MR fluid damper is a controllable energy-dissipation device that cannot add mechanical energy to the structural system, the proposed control strategy is fail-safe in that bounded-input, bounded-output stability of the controlled structure is guaranteed. Numerical simulation results show that the performance of the proposed semi-active control strategy using MR fluid dampers is quite effective.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.180-189
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• 2002

The objective of this experimental research is to assess the seismic performance of circular RC bridge pier specimens retrofitted with fibers which were designed as a prototype of Hagal bridge in the city of Suwon, Korea. Pseudo dynamic test has been done for four(4) test specimens which were nonseismically or seismically designed by the related provisions of the Korea roadway bridge design specification, and four nonseisemic test specimens retrofitted with fibers in the plastic hinge region. Glass and carbon fiber sheets were used for the seismic capacity enhancement of circular test specimens. Important test parameters were confinement steel ratio, load pattern, and retrofitting. The seismic behavior has been analyzed through the displacement ductility, energy analysis, and capacity spectrum. Approximate 7.7 ∼8.7 displacement ductility was observed for nonseismic test specimens retrofitted with fibers subjected to Korea Highway Cooperation artificial earthquake motions. It is concluded that these retrofitted test specimens could have sufficient seismic capacity in the region of moderate seismic zone.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.179-186
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• 2007

The response spectrum is one of the important basic materials for the aseismic design. Numerous strong ground motions based on the seismic source characteristics for the earthquakes occurring in the Korean Peninsula were simulated to obtain the response spectra by using the computer program, SMSIM, developed by Boore (2005). Through the extensive review of other study outcomes, the input data for the simulation such as seismic source and attenuation characteristics were selected. The spectra obtained from the simulated ground motions were normalized to 1.0 g of zero period acceleration and compared with the standard response spectrum proposed by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, 1973). In this study, we found that the spectral values for the response spectra appeared to be larger than those of the standard spectrum in the frequency band above roughly 10 Hz. The variation of resulting response spectra was evaluated with the variable stress drops. It was shown that the spectral amplitude of the spectrum for the larger stress drop denotes higher value in the low frequency range.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.163-181
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• 2015

This research investigates the structural health monitoring of nonlinear structures after a major seismic event. It considers the identification of flag-shaped or pinched hysteresis behavior in response to structures as a more general case of a normal hysteresis curve without pinching. The method is based on the overall least squares methods and the log likelihood ratio test. In particular, the structural response is divided into different loading and unloading sub-half cycles. The overall least squares analysis is first implemented to obtain the minimum residual mean square estimates of structural parameters for each sub-half cycle with the number of segments assumed. The log likelihood ratio test is used to assess the likelihood of these nonlinear segments being true representations in the presence of noise and model error. The resulting regression coefficients for identified segmented regression models are finally used to obtain stiffness, yielding deformation and energy dissipation parameters. The performance of the method is illustrated using a single degree of freedom system and a suite of 20 earthquake records. RMS noise of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% is added to the response data to assess the robustness of the identification routine. The proposed method is computationally efficient and accurate in identifying the damage parameters within 10% average of the known values even with 20% added noise. The method requires no user input and could thus be automated and performed in real-time for each sub-half cycle, with results available effectively immediately after an event as well as during an event, if required.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.165-170
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• 2019

The structural damage caused by earthquake to the upper structure of seismic base-isolated system can be suppressed effectively because it is designed to concentrate the input energy on the seismic isolation floor. Further, the response acceleration of seismic base-isolated system can be greatly reduced compared to the seismic structure because of the long period, which means that the design shear force of the seismic base-isolated system can be reduced appropriately. However, when the design shear force is determined to be reduced, the design stiffness will decrease, and the response acceleration will increase oppositely. Therefore, for finding the extent to which the design shear force of the upper structure can be reduced, this paper considered the seismic base-isolated structure as the analytical model and proposed the design shear force reduction factor of the base-isolated structure through the dynamic response analysis, while considering the decrement effect of response acceleration. The research result shows that the response acceleration of the isolated the upper structure can be reduced by 50%~70% of the seismic structure under the same design conditions, and the design shear force can be reduced by up to 40%. By increasing the design stiffness over to 1.8 times of the original design value, the design shear force can be reduced to the same extent as the response acceleration can be reduced compared to the seismic structure.