• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.625-641
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• 2020

The realistic modeling of the beam-column semi-rigid connection in steel frames attracted the attention of many researchers in the past for the seismic analysis of semi-rigid frames. Comparatively less studies have been made to investigate the behavior of steel frames with semi-rigid connections under different types of earthquake. Herein, the seismic behavior of semi-rigid steel frames is investigated under both far and near-field earthquakes. The semi-rigid connection is modeled by the multilinear plastic link element consisting of rotational springs. The kinematic hysteresis model is used to define the dynamic behavior of the rotational spring, describing the nonlinearity of the semi-rigid connection as defined in SAP2000. The nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) is performed to obtain response time histories of the frame under scaled earthquakes at three PGA levels denoting the low, medium and high-level earthquakes. The other important parameters varied are the stiffness and strength parameters of the connections, defining the degree of semi-rigidity. For studying the behavior of the semi-rigid frame, a large number of seismic demand parameters are considered. The benchmark for comparison is taken as those of the corresponding rigid frame. Two different frames, namely, a five-story frame and a ten-story frame are considered as the numerical examples. It is shown that semi-rigid frames prove to be effective and beneficial in resisting the seismic forces for near-field earthquakes (PGA ≈ 0.2g), especially in reducing the base shear to a considerable extent for the moderate level of earthquake. Further, the semi-rigid frame with a relatively weaker beam and less connection stiffness may withstand a moderately strong earthquake without having much damage in the beams.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.233-267
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• 2018

Conventional seismic design of concentrically braced frame (CBF) structures suggests that the gusset plate connecting a steel brace to beams and/or columns should be designed as non-dissipative in earthquakes, while the steel brace members should be designed as dissipative elements. These design intentions lead to thicker and larger gusset plates in design on one hand and a potentially under-rated contribution of gusset plates in design, on the other hand. In contrast, research has shown that compact and thinner gusset plates designed in accordance with the elliptical clearance method rather than the conventional standard linear clearance method can enhance system ductility and energy dissipation capacity in concentrically braced steel frames. In order to assess the two design methods, six cyclic push-over tests on full scale models of concentric braced steel frame structures were conducted. Furthermore, a 3D finite element (FE) shell model, incorporating state-of-the-art tools and techniques in numerical simulation, was developed that successfully replicates the response of gusset plate and bracing members under fully reversed cyclic axial loading. Direct measurements from strain gauges applied to the physical models were used primarily to validate FE models, while comparisons of hysteresis load-displacement loops from physical and numerical models were used to highlight the overall performance of the FE models. The study shows the two design methods attain structural response as per the design intentions; however, the elliptical clearance method has a superiority over the standard linear method as a fact of improving detailing of the gusset plates, enhancing resisting capacity and improving deformability of a CBF structure. Considerations were proposed for improvement of guidelines for detailing gusset plates and bracing members in CBF structures.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2003

In equivalent static nonlinear analysis and in energy-based design, the structures are generally transformed into an equivalent SDOF system. In this study the seismic energy demands in multi story structures, such as three-, eight-, and twenty-story steel moment-resisting frames(MRF), buckling restrained braced frames(BRBF) and a damage tolerant braced frame(DTBF), are compared with those of equivalent single degree of freedom(ESDOF) systems. Sixty earthquake ground motions recorded In different soil conditions, which are soft rock, soft soil, and neat fault, were used to compute the input and hysteretic energy demands in model structures. In case the modal mass coefficient is less than 0.8, the effects of higher modes are considered in the process of converting into ESDOF According to the analysis results, the hysteretic and input energies obtained from 3 story and 8 story MRF and DTBF agreed well with the results from analysis of equivalent SDOF systems. However in the 20 story BRBF the results from ESDOF underestimated those obtained from the original structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.127-143
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• 2015

In conventional seismic design, structures are assumed to be fixed at the base. To reduce the impact of earthquake loading, while at the same time providing an economically feasible structure, minor damage is tolerated in the form of controlled plastic hinging at predefined locations in the structure. Uplift is traditionally not permitted because of concerns that it would lead to collapse. However, observations of damage to structures that have been through major earthquakes reveal that partial and temporary uplift of structures can be beneficial in many cases. Allowing a structure to move as a rigid body is in fact one way to limit activated seismic forces that could lead to severe inelastic deformations. To further reduce the induced seismic energy, slip-friction connectors could be installed to act both as hold-downs resisting overturning and as contributors to structural damping. This paper reviews recent research on the concept, with a focus on timber shear walls. A novel approach used to achieve the desired sliding threshold in the slip-friction connectors is described. The wall uplifts when this threshold is reached, thereby imparting ductility to the structure. To resist base shear an innovative shear key was developed. Recent research confirms that the proposed system of timber wall, shear key, and slip-friction connectors, are feasible as a ductile and low-damage structural solution. Additional numerical studies explore the interaction between vertical load and slip-friction connector strength, and how this influences both the energy dissipation and self-centring capabilities of the rocking structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-57
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• 2022

This article presents a computationally efficient framework for multi-objective seismic design optimization of steel moment-resisting frame (MRF) structures based on the nonlinear dynamic analysis procedure. This framework employs the uniform damage distribution philosophy to minimize the weight (initial cost) of the structure at different levels of damage. The preliminary framework was recently proposed by the authors based on the single excitation and the nonlinear static (pushover) analysis procedure, in which the effects of record-to-record variability as well as higher-order vibration modes were neglected. The present study investigates the reliability of the previous framework by extending the proposed algorithm using the nonlinear dynamic design procedure (optimization under multiple ground motions). Three benchmark structures, including 4-, 8-, and 12-story steel MRFs, representing the behavior of low-, mid-, and high-rise buildings, are utilized to evaluate the proposed framework. The total weight of the structure and the maximum inter-story drift ratio (IDRmax) resulting from the average response of the structure to a set of seven ground motion records are considered as two conflicting objectives for the optimization problem and are simultaneously minimized. The results of this study indicate that the optimization under several ground motions leads to almost similar outcomes in terms of optimization objectives to those are obtained from optimization under pushover analysis. However, investigation of optimal designs under a suite of 22 earthquake records reveals that the damage distribution in buildings designed by the nonlinear dynamic-based procedure is closer to the uniform distribution (desired target during the optimization process) compared to those designed according to the pushover procedure.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.313-326
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• 2020

Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars have been introduced as an effective alternative for the conventional steel reinforcement in concrete structures to mitigate the costly consequences of steel corrosion. However, despite the superior performance of these composite materials in terms of corrosion, the effect of replacing steel reinforcement with GFRP on the seismic performance of concrete structures is not fully covered yet. To address some of the key parameters in the seismic behavior of GFRP-reinforced concrete (RC) structures, two full-scale beam-column joints reinforced with GFRP bars and stirrups were constructed and tested under two phases of loading, each simulating a severe ground motion. The objective was to investigate the effect of damage due to earthquakes on the service and ultimate behavior of GFRP-RC moment-resisting frames. The main parameters under investigation were geometrical configuration (interior or exterior beam-column joint) and joint shear stress. The performance of the specimens was measured in terms of lateral load-drift response, energy dissipation, mode of failure and stress distribution. Moreover, the effect of concrete damage due to earthquake loading on the performance of beam-column joints under service loading was investigated and a modified damage index was proposed to quantify the magnitude of damage in GFRP-RC beam-column joints under dynamic loading. Test results indicated that the geometrical configuration significantly affects the level of concrete damage and energy dissipation. Moreover, the level of residual damage in GFRP-RC beam-column joints after undergoing lateral displacements was related to reinforcement ratio of the main beams.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 1997

Current seismic design code is based on the assumption that the designed structures would be behaved inelastically during a severe earthquake ground motion. For this reason, seismic design forces calculated by seismic codes are much lower than the forces generated by design earthquakes which makes structures responding elastically. Present procedures for calculating seismic design forces are based on the use of elastic spectra reduced by a strength reduction factors known as "response modificaion factor". Because these factors were determined empirically, it is difficult to know how much inelastic behaviors of the structures exhibit. In this study, lateral strength required to maintain target ductility ratio was first calculated from nonlinear dynamic analysis of the single degree of freedom system. At the following step, base shear foeces specified in seismic design code compare with above results. If the base shear force required to maintain target ductility ratio was higher than the code specified one, the lack of required strength should be filled by overstrength and/or redundancy. Therefore, overstrength of moment resisting frame structure will be estimated from the results of push-over analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.537-549
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• 2018

Using vertical links in eccentric braced frames is one of the best passive structural control approaches due to its effectiveness and practicality advantages. However, in spite of the subject importance there are limited studies which evaluate the seismic reliability and response reduction factor (R-factor) in this system. Therefore, the present study has been conducted to improve the current understanding about failure mechanism in the structural systems equipped with vertical links. For this purpose, following definition of demand and capacity response reduction factors, these parameters are computed for three different buildings (4, 8 and 12 stories) equipped with this system. In this regards, pushover and incremental dynamic analysis have been employed, and seismic reliability as well as multi-level response reduction factor according to the seismic demand and capacity of the frames have been derived. Based on the results, this system demonstrates high ductility and seismic energy dissipation capacity, and using the response reduction factor as high as 8 also provides acceptable reliability for the frame in the moderate and high earthquake intensities. This system can be used in original buildings as lateral load resisting system in addition to seismic rehabilitation of the existing buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.533-546
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• 2019

This study presents an experimental investigation on six beam-column joint specimens under the lateral cyclic loading. The aim was to explore the effectiveness of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) in reducing the transverse shear stirrups in beam-column joints of the reinforced concrete (RC) frames with strong-columns and weak-beams. Two RC and four SFRC specimens with different types of reinforcement detailing and steel fibers of volume fraction in the range of 0.75-1.5% were tested under gradually increasing cyclic displacements. The main parameters investigated were lateral load-resisting capacity, hysteresis response, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation, viscous damping variation, and mode of failure. Test results showed that the diagonally bent configuration of beam longitudinal bars in the beam-column joints resulted in the shear failure at the joint region against the flexural failure of beams having straight bar configurations. However, all SFRC specimens exhibited similar lateral strength, energy dissipation potential and mode of failure even in the absence of transverse steel in the beam-column joints. Finally, a methodology has been proposed to compute the shear strength of SFRC beam-column joints under the lateral loading condition.

• 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.