• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.305-325
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• 1998

A method that determines the minimum stiffness of baracing to achieve non-sway buckling conditions at a given story level of a multi-column elastic frame is proposed. Condensed equations that evaluate the required minimum stiffness of the lateral and torsional bracing are derived using the classical stability functions. The proposed method is applicable to elastic framed structures with rigid, semirigid, and simple connections. It is shown that the minimum stiffness of the bracing required by a multi-column system depends on: 1) the plan layout of the columns; 2) the variation in height and cross sectional properties among the columns; 3) the applied axial load pattern on the columns; 4) the lack of symmetry in the loading pattern, column layout, column sizes and heights that cause torsion-sway and its effects on the flexural bucking capacity; and 5) the flexural and torsional end restrains of the columns. The proposed method is limited to elastic framed structures with columns of doubly symmetrical cross section with their principal axes parallel to the global axes. However, it can be applied to inelastic structures when the nonlinear behavior is concentrated at the end connections. The effects of axial deformations in beams and columns are neglected. Three examples are presented in detail to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.3
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• pp.289-301
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• 2019

Hysteretic energy is defined as energy dissipated through inelastic deformations during a ground motion by the system. It includes frequency content and duration of ground motion as two remarkable parameters, while these characteristics are not seen in displacement spectrum. Since maximum displacement individually cannot be the appropriate criterion for damage assessment, hysteretic energy has been evaluated in this research as a more comprehensive seismic demand parameter. An innovative methodology has been proposed to establish a new equivalent linear model to estimate hysteretic energy spectrum for bilinear SDOF models under two different sets of earthquake excitations. Error minimization has been defined in the space of equivalent linearization concept, which resulted in equivalent damping and equivalent period as representative parameters of the linear model. Nonlinear regression analysis was carried out for predicting these equivalent parameter as a function of ductility. The results also indicate differences between seismic demand characteristics of far-field and near-field ground motions, which are not identified by most of previous equations presented for predicting seismic energy. The main advantage of the proposed model is its independency on parameters related to earthquake and response characteristics, which has led to more efficiency as well as simplicity. The capability of providing a practical energy based seismic performance evaluation is another outstanding feature of the proposed model.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.291-298
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• 2002

Recently, construction of reinforced concrete tall buildings is widely increased according to the improvement of material quality and design technology. Therefore, differential shortenings of columns due to elastic, creep, and shrinkage have been an important issue. But it has been neglected to predict the Inelastic behavior of RC structures even though those deformations make a serious problem on the partition wall, external cladding, duct, etc. In this paper, analysis system for prediction and compensation of the differential column shortenings considering time-dependent deformations and construction sequence is developed using the objected-oriented technique. Developed analysis system considers the construction sequence, especially time-dependent deformation in early days, and is composed of input module, database module, database store module, analysis module, and analysis result generation module. Graphic user interface(GUI) is supported for user's convenience. After performing the analysis, the output results like deflections and member forces according to the time can be observed in the generation module using the graphic diagram, table, and chart supported by the integrated environment.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.257-268
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• 1994

An experimental study was carried out to elicit important factors causing cracks and rupture of steel members and their elements under imposed large repeated deformations, and of the quantitative relationships among the important physical factors leading to failure. Each of twenty-eight angles and nine thin-plates served as the specimen and was subjected to repeated axial load after undergoing inelastic buckling. Particular attention was paid to the effects of loading pattern, failure mode and cross-sectional shape on the very-low-cycle failure behavior under loading repetitions of the order of a few to twenty. The experimental results show that energy dissipation capacity depends heavily on the entire history of loading, the failure mode, the slenderness ratio and the width-to-thickness ratio. No simple quantitative relations were observed between the initiation of the visible cracks or rupture and the energy dissipation capacity. The maximum values of residual "net" strains are found to range from 25% to 40%, independent of the test parameters.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.53-63
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• 2007

Seismic design codes are developed mainly based on the observation of the behavior of structures in the high seismicity regions where structures may experience significant amount of inelastic deformations and major earthquakes may result in structural damages in a vast area. Therefore, seismic loads are reduced in current design codes for building structures using response modification factors which depend on the ductility capacity and overstrength of a structural system. However, structures in low seismicity regions, subjected to a minor earthquake, will behave almost elastically because of the larger overstrength of structures in low seismicity regions such as Korea. Structures in low seismicity regions may have longer periods since they are designed to smaller seismic loads and main target of design will be minor or moderate earthquakes occurring nearby. Ground accelerations recorded at stations near the epicenter may have somewhat different response spectra from those of distant station records. Therefore, it is necessary to verify if the seismic design methods based on high seismicity would he applicable to low seismicity regions. In this study, the adequacy of design spectra, period estimation and response modification factors are discussed for the seismic design in low seismicity regions. The response modification factors are verified based on the ductility and overstrength of building structures estimated from the farce-displacement relationship. For the same response modification factor, the ductility demand in low seismicity regions may be smaller than that of high seismicity regions because the overstrength of structures may be larger in low seismicity regions. The ductility demands in example structures designed to UBC97 for high, moderate and low seismicity regions were compared. Demands of plastic rotation in connections were much lower in low seismicity regions compared to those of high seismicity regions when the structures are designed with the same response modification factor. Therefore, in low seismicity regions, it would be not required to use connection details with large ductility capacity even for structures designed with a large response modification factor.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

Seismic retrofitting of existing buildings and design of earth-quake resistant buildings are important issues associated with earthquake-prone zones. Use of metallic-yielding dampers as an energy dissipation system is an acceptable method for controlling damages in structures and improving their seismic performance. In this study, the optimal distribution of dampers for reducing the seismic response of steel frames with multi-degrees freedom is presented utilizing the uniform distribution of deformations. This has been done in a way that, the final configuration of dampers in the frames lead to minimum weight while satisfying the performance criteria. It is shown that such a structure has an optimum seismic performance, in which the maximum structure capacity is used. Then the genetic algorithm which is an evolutionary optimization method is used for optimal arrangement of the steel dampers in the structure. In continuation for specifying the optimal accurate response, the local search algorithm based on the gradient concept has been selected. In this research the introduced optimization methods are used for optimal retrofitting in the moment-resisting frame with inelastic behavior and initial weakness in design. Ultimately the optimal configuration of dampers over the height of building specified and by comparing the results of the uniform deformation method with those of the genetic algorithm, the validity of the uniform deformation method in terms of accuracy, Time Speed Optimization and the simplicity of the theory have been proven.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2018

Cyclic loading tests for shear dominant hybrid steel link beams with circular web openings were performed to evaluate the seismic performance. Four half-scaled specimens with bolted connections were tested. The test parameter is a diameter of the web opening, i.e., shear strength ratio ($V_{pw}/V_p$) of the link beam and presence of top-seat angles. Using test results, adequate design shear strength of link beam was finally suggested. Test results showed that when the shear capacity is less than half of the plastic shear strength, seismic performance was improved due to mitigation of pinching under reversed cyclic inelastic deformations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.789-830
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• 2015

The recent re-assessment of the seismic hazard in Europe led for many regions of low to moderate seismicity to an increase in the seismic demand. As a consequence, several modern unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, constructed with reinforced concrete (RC) slabs that provide an efficient rigid diaphragm action, no longer satisfy the seismic design check and have been retrofitted by adding or replacing URM walls with RC walls. Of late, also several new construction projects have been conceived directly as buildings with both RC and URM walls. Despite the widespread use of such construction technique, very little is known about the seismic behaviour of mixed RC-URM wall structures and codes do not provide adequate support to designers. The aim of the paper is therefore to propose a displacement-based design methodology for the design of mixed RC-URM edifices and the retrofit of URM buildings by replacing or adding selected URM walls with RC ones. The article describes also two tools developed for estimating important quantities relevant for the displacement-based design of structures with both RC and URM walls. The tools are (i) a mechanical model based on the shear-flexure interaction between URM and RC walls and (ii) an elastic model for estimating the contribution of the RC slabs to the overturning moment capacity of the system. In the last part of the article the proposed design method is verified through nonlinear dynamic analyses of several case studies. These results show that the proposed design approach has the ability of controlling the displacement profile of the designed structures, avoiding concentration of deformations in one single storey, a typical feature of URM wall 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.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.347-364
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• 2010

Since its invention in the $19^{th}$ century, Reinforced Concrete (RC) has been widely used in the construction of a lot of different structures, as buildings, bridges, nuclear central plants, or even ships. The details of the mechanical response for this kind of structures depends directly upon the material behavior of each component: concrete and steel, as well as their interaction through the bond-slip, which makes a rigorous engineering analysis of RC structures quite complicated. Consequently, the practical calculation of RC structures is done by adopting a lot of simplifications and hypotheses validated in the elastic range. Nevertheless, as soon as any RC structural element is working in the inelastic range, it is possible to obtain the numerical prediction of its realistic behavior only through the use of non linear analysis. The aim of this work is to develop a new kind of Finite Element: the "Enhanced Solid Element (ESE)" which takes into account the complex composition of reinforced concrete, being able to handle each dissipative material behavior and their different deformations, and on the other hand, conserving a simplified shape for engineering applications. Based on the recent XFEM developments, we introduce the concept of nodal enrichment to represent kinematics of steel rebars as well as bonding. This enrichment allows to reproduce the strain incompatibility between concrete and steel that occurs because of the bond degradation and slip. This formulation was tested with a couple of simple examples and compared to the results obtained from other standard formulations.