• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.349-363
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• 2012

Fuzzy logic based control has recently been proposed for regulating the properties of magnetorheological (MR) dampers in an effort to reduce vibrations of structures subjected to seismic excitations. So far, most studies showing the effectiveness of these algorithms have focused on the use of a single MR damper. Because multiple dampers would be needed in practical applications, this study aims to evaluate the effects of multiple individually tuned fuzzy-controlled MR dampers in reducing responses of a multi-degree-of-freedom structure subjected to seismic motions. Two different fuzzy-control algorithms are considered, a traditional controller where all parameters are kept constant, and a gain-scheduling control strategy. Different damper placement configurations are also considered, as are different numbers of MR dampers. To determine the robustness of the fuzzy controllers developed to changes in ground excitation, the structure selected is subjected to different earthquake records. Responses analyzed include peak and root mean square displacements, accelerations, and interstory drifts. Results obtained with the fuzzy-based control schemes are compared to passive control strategies.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.85-91
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• 2003

TLCD is a good alternative to TMD for control of structures because of its cost efficiency, ease of installation, little maintenance requirement, potential for multiple usage, and ease of re-tuning. In this study, the control performances of TMD and TLCD are evaluated and compared for seismically excited structures. Results show that TLCD is more effective than TMD for interstory drift control while TLCD is as effective as TMD for acceleration control. In special. it is shown that interstory drifts are maximally controlled in lower floors and accelerations are reduced most in upper floors. This indicates that TLCD is an effective controller for earthquake-induced structures in terms of structural safety as well as serviceability.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.755-773
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• 2013

One of the main requirements of the seismic design codes must be its easy application by structural engineers. The use of practically-applicable models or simplified models as single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems is a good alternative to achieve this condition. In this study, deterministic and probabilistic response transformation factors are obtained to evaluate the response in terms of maximum ductility and maximum interstory drifts of multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems based on the response of equivalent SDOF systems. For this aim, five steel frames designed with the Mexican City Building Code (MCBC) as well as their corresponding equivalent SDOF systems (which represent the characteristics of the frames) are analyzed. Both structural systems are subjected to ground motions records. For the MDOF and the simplified systems, incremental dynamic analyses IDAs are developed in first place, then, structural demand hazard curves are obtained. The ratio between the IDAs curves corresponding to the MDOF systems and the curves corresponding to the simplified models are used to obtain deterministic response transformation factors. On the other hand, demand hazard curves are used to calculate probabilistic response transformation factors. It was found that both approaches give place to similar results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.285-296
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• 2017

Base isolation is a quite practical control strategy for enhancing the response of structural systems induced by strong ground motions. Due to the dynamic effects of base isolation systems, reduction in the interstory drifts of the superstructure is often achieved at the expense of high base displacement level, which may lead to instability of the structure or non-practical designs for the base isolators. To reduce the base displacement, several hybrid structural control strategies have been studied over the past decades. This study investigates a particular strategy that employs Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) for improving the performance of base-isolated structures and unlike previous studies, specifically focuses on the effectiveness of this hybrid control strategy in structures that are equipped with nonlinear base isolation systems. To consider the nonlinearities of base isolation systems, a Bouc-Wen model is selected and nonlinear dynamic OpenSees models are used to perform several time-history simulations in time and frequency domains. Through these numerical simulations, the effects of several parameters such as the fundamental period of the structure, dynamic properties of the TMD and isolation systems and properties of the input ground motion on the behaviour of TMD-structure-base isolation systems are examined. The results of this study provide a better insight into the performance of linear shear-story structures with nonlinear base isolators and show that there are many scenarios in which TMDs can still improve the performance of these systems.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.4
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• pp.423-442
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• 2018

In this paper, masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frames are analyzed through a probabilistic approach. A macro-modeling technique, based on an equivalent diagonal pin-jointed strut, has been resorted to for modelling the stiffening contribution of the masonry panels. Since it is quite difficult to decide which mechanical characteristics to assume for the diagonal struts in such simplified model, the strut width is here considered as a random variable, whose stochastic characterization stems from a wide set of empirical expressions proposed in the literature. The stochastic analysis of the masonry infilled RC frame is conducted via the Probabilistic Transformation Method by employing a set of space transformation laws of random vectors to determine the probability density function (PDF) of the system response in a direct manner. The knowledge of the PDF of a set of response indicators, including displacements, bending moments, shear forces, interstory drifts, opens an interesting discussion about the influence of the uncertainty of the masonry infills and the resulting implications in a design process.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.35-44
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• 2008

A self-centering energy-dissipative(SCED) bracing system has recently been developed as a new seismic force resistant bracing system. The advantage of the SCED brace system is that, unlike other comparable advanced bracing systems that dissipate energy such as the buckling restrained brace(BRB) system, it has a self-centering capability that reduces or eliminates residual building deformations after major seismic events. In order to investigate the effects of torsion on the SCED brace and BRB systems, nonlinear time history analyses were used to compare the responses of 3D model structures with three different amounts of frame eccentricity. The results of the analysis showed that the interstory drifts of SCED braced frames are more uniform than those of BRB frames, without regard to irregularity. The residual drift and residual rotation responses tended to decrease as irregularity increased. For medium-rise structures, the drift concentration factors(DCFs) for SCED systems were lower than those for BRB frames. This means that SCED-braced frames deform in a more uniform manner with respect to building height. The effect of the torsional irregularity on the magnitude of the DCFs was small.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.349-365
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• 2020

Since the peak seismic response of a base-isolated building strongly depends on the characteristics of the imposed seismic ground motion, the behavior of a base-isolated building under different seismic ground motions is studied, in order to better assess their effects on its peak seismic response. Specifically, the behavior of a typical steel building is examined as base-isolated with elastomeric bearings, while the effect of near-fault ground motions is studied by imposing 7 pairs of near- and 7 pairs of far-fault seismic records, from the same 7 earthquake events, to the building, under 3 different loading combinations, through three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analyses, conducted with SAP2000. The results indicate that near-fault seismic components are more likely to increase the building's peak seismic response than the corresponding far-fault components. Furthermore, the direction of the imposed earthquake excitations is also varied by rotating the imposed pairs of seismic records from 0◦ to 360◦, with respect to the major construction axes. It is observed that the peak seismic responses along the critical incident angles, which in general differ from the major horizontal construction axes of the building, are significantly higher. Moreover, the influence of 5% and 10% accidental mass eccentricities is also studied, revealing that when considering accidental mass eccentricities the peak relative displacements of the base isolated building at the isolation level are substantially increased, while the peak floor accelerations and interstory drifts of its superstructure are only slightly affected.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.103-111
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• 1995

Evaluating nonlinear response of a MDOF system under dynamic stochastic loads such as seismic excitation usually requires excessive computational efforts. To alleviate this computational difficulty, an approximation is developed in which the MDOF inelastic system is replaced by a simple nonlinear equivalent system(ENS).Me ENS retains the most important properties of the original system such as dynamic characteristics of the first two modes and the global yielding behavior of the MDOF system. The system response is described by the maximum global(building) and local(interstory) drifts. The equivalency is achieved by two response scaling factors, a global response scaling factor R/sub G/, and a local response scaling factor R/sub L/, applied to the responses of the ENS to match those of the original MDOF system. These response scaling factors are obtained as functions of ductility and mass participation factors of the first two modes of structures by extensive regression analyses based on results of responses of the MDOF system and the ENS to actual ground accelerations recorded in past earthquakes. To develop the ENS with two response scaling factors, Special Moment Resisting Steel Frames are considered. Then, these response scaling factors are applied to the response of ENS to obtain the nonlinear response of MDOF system.