• 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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.3
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• pp.421-433
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• 2020

Masonry infills are normally considered as non-structural elements in design practice, therefore, the interaction between the bounding frame and the strength contribution of masonry infills is commonly ignored in the seismic analysis work of the RC frames. However, a number of typical RC frames with irregular distributed masonry infills have suffered from undesirable weak-story failure in major earthquakes, which indicates that ignoring the influence of masonry infills may cause great seismic collapse risk of RC frames. This paper presented the investigation on the risk of seismic collapse of RC frames with irregularly distributed masonry infills through a large number of nonlinear time history analyses (NTHAs). Based on the results of NTHAs, seismic fragility curves were developed for RC frames with various distribution patterns of masonry infills. It was found that the existence of masonry infills generally reduces the collapse risk of the RC frames under both frequent happened and very strong earthquakes, however, the severe irregular distribution of masonry infills, such as open ground story scenario, results in great risk of forming a weak story failure. The strong-column weak-beam (SCWB) ratio has been widely adopted in major seismic design codes to control the potential of weak story failures, where a SCWB ratio value about 1.2 is generally accepted as the lower limit. In this study, the effect of SCWB ratio on inter-story drift distribution was also parametrically investigated. It showed that improving the SCWB ratio of the RC frames with irregularly distributed masonry infills can reduce inter-story drift concentration index under earthquakes, therefore, prevent weak story failures. To achieve the same drift concentration index limit of the bare RC frame with SCWB ratio of about 1.2, which is specified in ACI318-14, the SCWB ratio of masonry-infilled RC frames should be no less than 1.5. For the open ground story scenario, this value can be as high as 1.8.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.763-774
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• 2012

Reinforced concrete frame structures with masonry infill walls constitute the significant portion of the building stock in Turkey. Therefore it is very important to understand the behavior of masonry infill frame structures under earthquake loads. This study presents an experimental work performed on reinforced concrete (RC) frames with different types of masonry infills, namely standard and locked bricks. Earthquake effects are induced on the RC frames by quasi-static tests. Results obtained from different frames are compared with each other through various stiffness, strength, and energy related parameters. It is shown that locked bricks may prove useful in decreasing the problems related to horizontal and vertical irregularities defined in building codes. Moreover tests show that locked brick infills maintain their integrity up to very high drift levels, showing that they may have a potential in reducing injuries and fatalities related to falling hazards during severe ground shakings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.4
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• pp.395-409
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• 2022

The presence of infill generally neglected in design despite the fact that infill contribution significantly increase the lateral stiffness and strength of the reinforced concrete frame structure. Several experimental studies and computational models have been proposed to capture the rational response of infill-frame interaction at global level. However, limited studies are available on explicit finite element modelling to study the local behavior due to high computation and convergence issues in numerical modelling. In the current study, the computational modelling of RC frames is done with various configurations of infill masonry in terms of types of blocks, lateral loading and reinforcement detailing employed with material nonlinearities, interface contact issues and bond-slip phenomenon particularly near the beam-column joints. To this end, extensive computational modelling of five variant characteristics test specimens extracted from the detailed experimental program available in literature and process through nonlinear static analysis in FEM code, ATENA generally used to capture the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. Results are presented in terms of damage patterns and capacity curves by employing the finest possible detail provided in the experimental program. Comparative analysis shows that good correlation amongst the experimental and numerical simulated results both in terms of capacity and crack patterns.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2020

Lightly reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames may suffer significant damage during large earthquake events. Most buildings with RC moment frames were designed without considering seismic loads. The load-displacement response of gravity load designed frames could be altered by masonry infill walls. The objective of this study is to investigate the load-displacement response of gravity load designed frames with masonry infill walls. For this purpose, three-story gravity load designed frames with masonry infill walls were considered. The masonry infilled RC frames demonstrated larger lateral strength and stiffness than bare RC frames, whereas their drift capacity was less than that of bare frames. A specimen with a partial-height infill wall showed the least drift capacity and energy dissipation capacity. This specimen failed in shear, whereas other specimens experienced a relatively ductile failure mode (flexure-shear failure).

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.611-623
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• 2019

A set of mid-rise bare and uniformly infilled reinforced-concrete frame buildings are analyzed for two different seismic intensities of ground-motions (i.e., 'Design Basis Earthquake' and 'Maximum Considered Earthquake') to study their floor response. The crucial parameters affecting seismic design force for acceleration-sensitive non-structural components are studied and compared with the guidelines of the European and the United States standards, and also with the recently developed NIST provisions. It is observed that the provisions of both the European and the United States standards do not account for the effects of the period of vibration of the supporting structure and seismic intensity of ground-motions and thereby provides conservative estimates of the in-structure amplification. In case of bare frames, the herein derived component amplification factors for both the design basis earthquake and the maximum considered earthquake exceeds with their recommended values in the European and the United States standards for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the higher modes of vibration, whereas, in case of infilled frames, component amplification factors exceeds with their recommended value in the European standard for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the fundamental mode of vibration, and only for the design basis earthquake. As a consequence of these observations, as well as capping on the design force (in case of United states standard and NIST provisions), in case of the design basis earthquake, the combined amplification factor is underestimated for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the higher modes of vibration of bare frames, and also for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the fundamental mode of vibration of infilled frames. At the maximum considered earthquake demand, excepting non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the higher modes of vibration of bare frames, all provisions generally provide conservative estimates of the design floor accelerations.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.185-190
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• 2001

The severe shortage of the available sites in the highly developed downtown area in Korea necessitates the construction of high-rise buildings which meet the need of residence and commercial activity simultaneously. The objective of this study is to investigate the seismic performance of this type of building structures. For this purpose, two 1:12 scale 17-story reinforced concrete model structures were constructed according to the similitude law, in which the upper 15 stories have a bearing-wall system while the lower 2-story frames with infilled shear wall have two different layouts of the plan : The one has symmetric plan and the other has unsymmetric plan. Then, this model was subjected to a series of earthquake excitations. The test results show that the layout of shear wall has the negligible effect on the natural period and the base shear coefficient, but great effect on the failure mode of beam-column joint at flexible side frame.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.2 s.54
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• pp.95-104
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• 2007

Three types of high-rise RC building structures having irregularity in the lower two stories were selected as prototypes and were performed nonlinear static analysis by using OpenSees to verify the analysis technique and to investigate the seismic capacity of those buildings. The first one has a symmetrical moment resisting frame (Model 1), the second has an infilled shear wall in the central frame (Model 2), and the third has an infilled shear wall only in one of exterior frames (Model 3). Fiber model, which consists of concrete and reinforcing bar represented from stress-strain relationship, is adapted used for simulate the nonlinearity of members, and MVLEM(Multi vertical linear element model) is used for simulate the behavior of wall. The analytical results are simulate the behavior of piloti stories well, for example, the stiffness and yield farce of piloti stories, the up-lift of wall and the variation of lateral stiffness of column due to the variation of axial forces. Overstrength of Model 2 and Model 3 are about 2 times larger than that of Model 1. The reason of the high oversttrength and ductility of Model 2 and Model 3 is that the conservative design of Model 2 and Model 3, whose beam and column sections are the same as those of Model 1. The ductilities of Model 1 and Model 3 are slightly larger than that of Model 1 and Model 3. Model 1 and Model 3 reached mechanism condition, whereas Model 2 failed to the shear failure of shear wall and the large axial forces in columns due to large overturning moment.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2009

Many of residential buildings, which have pilotis in lower stories to meet the architectural needs, are recently constructed in Korea. Usually, infill walls located in the upper stories of these buildings may cause a soft first story, which is very weak from the earthquake resistance. In the design of the buildings, the infill walls of upper stories are usually considered as non-structural elements and thus they are not included in the analytical model. However, the infill walls may affect the seismic behavior of the residential buildings. Therefore, the differences in seismic behaviors of RC buildings with and without masonry infill walls are required to be investigated. In this study, seismic fragility analyses were performed for masonry infilled low-rise RC moment-resisting frames. And seismic behaviors of RC moment-resisting frame with/without masonry infill walls were evaluated. Two types of structural system with the same frame and different allocation of infill walls are used to evaluate the influence of masonry infill walls on seismic behavior of RC moment-resisting frames. The infill walls were modeled as bi-equivalent diagonal struts. The fragility analyses show that the seismic performance of RC moment-resisting frames with soft story is below the desirable building seismic performance level recommended by current seismic codes, indicating high vulnerability of RC moment-resisting frames with soft story.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.56-66
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• 2015

This study aims at developing a new seismic resistant method by using precast concrete wall panels for existing low-rise, reinforced concrete beam-column buildings such as school buildings. Three quasi-static hysteresis loading tests were performed on one unreinforced beam-column specimen and two reinforced specimens with U-type precast wall panels. Seismic resistant test of anchored and welded steel plate connections manifested an average of 2.8 times increase in the maximum loading (average 591.8 kN) in comparison to unreinforced beam-column specimen. The maximum drift ratios were also shown between 1.4% and 2.7%. An analytical study was performed while assuming the RC column on the right side and the vertical element of the reinforced PC panel to behave in completely composite manner and the RC column on the left side and PC panel to behave in completely non-composite manner when loading was exerted from upper right end of RC frame of specimen to its left side. It was found with the assumptions that the overall flexural behavior in principle agreed with the experimental result.