• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.543-555
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• 2024

This study examines the seismic vulnerability of vertically irregular reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings, focusing on the effectiveness of retrofitting techniques such as rocking walls (RWs) in mitigating soft story mechanisms. Utilizing a seven-story residential apartment as a prototype in a high-seismicity urban area, this research performs detailed nonlinear simulations to evaluate both regular and irregular structures, both before and after retrofitting. Pushover and nonlinear time history analyses were conducted using OpenSees software, with a suite of nine ground motion records to capture diverse seismic scenarios. The findings indicate that retrofitting with RWs significantly improves seismic performance: for instance, roof displacements at the Collapse Prevention (CP) level decreased by up to 23% in the irregular structure with retrofitting compared to its non-retrofitted counterpart. Additionally, interstory drift ratios were more uniform post-retrofit, with Drift Concentration Factor (DCF) values approaching 1.0 across all performance levels, reflecting reduced variability in seismic response. The global ductility of the retrofitted buildings improved, with displacement ductility ratios increasing by up to 29%. These results underscore the effectiveness of RWs in enhancing global ductility, mitigating soft story failures, and providing a more predictable deformation pattern during seismic events. The study thus provides valuable insights into the robustness and cost-effectiveness of using rocking walls for retrofitting irregular RC buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.351-373
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• 2014

This paper investigates the seismic response of lightweight acceleration-sensitive non-structural components (NSCs) mounted on irregular reinforced concrete (RC) primary structures (P-structures) using non-linear dynamic finite element (FE) analysis. The aim of this paper is to study the influence of NSC to P-structure vibration period ratio, peak ground acceleration, NSC to P-structure height ratio, and P-structure torsional behaviour on the seismic response of the NSCs. Representative constitutive models were used to simulate the behaviour of the RC P-structures. The NSCs were modelled as vertical cantilevers fixed at their bases with masses on the free ends and varying lengths so as to match the frequencies of the P-structures. Full dynamic interaction is considered between the NSCs and P-structures. A set of 21 natural and artificial earthquake records were used to evaluate the seismic response of the NSCs. The numerical results indicate that the behaviour of the NSCs is significantly influenced by the investigated parameters. Comparison between the FE results and Eurocode (EC8) predictions suggests that EC8 underestimates the response of NSCs mounted on the flexible sides of irregular RC P-structures when the fundamental periods and heights of the NSCs match those of the P-structures. The perceived cause of this discrepancy is that EC8 does not take into account the amplification in the dynamic response of NSCs induced by the torsional behaviour of RC P-structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제5권6호
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• pp.753-779
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• 2013

One of the most important issues in progressive collapse mechanism of the buildings is evaluation of the collapse distribution in presence of the earthquake loads. Here, collapse propagation is investigated by tracking down the location and type of the collapsed beam and column elements, from the first element to the entire buildings. 6-story reinforced concrete ordinary moment resisting frame buildings with one directional mass eccentricity of 0%, 5%, 15% and 25% are studied to investigate differences among the progressive collapse mechanism of the regular and irregular buildings. According to the results of the nonlinear time history analyses, there are some patterns to predict progressive collapse scenarios in beam and column elements of the similar regular and irregular buildings. Results also show that collapse distribution patterns are approximately independent of the earthquake records.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.283-295
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• 2022

Seismic design codes permit the use of Equivalent Static Analysis of buildings considering torsional eccentricity e with dynamic amplification factors on structural eccentricity and some accidental eccentricity. Estimation of e in buildings is not addressed in codes. This paper presents a simple approximate method to estimate e in RC Moment Frame and RC Structural Wall buildings, which required no detailed structural analysis. The method is validated by 3D analysis (using commercial structural analysis software) of a spectrum of building. Results show that dynamic amplification factor should be applied on torsional eccentricity when performing Response Spectrum Analysis also. Also, irregular or mixed modes of oscillation arise in torsionally unsymmetrical buildings owing to poor geometric distribution of mass and stiffness in plan, which is captured by the mass participation ratio. These irregular modes can be avoided in buildings of any plan geometry by limiting the two critical parameters (normalised torsional eccentricity e/B and Natural Period Ratio 𝜏 =T_𝜃/T, where B is building lateral dimension, T_𝜃 uncoupled torsional natural period and T uncoupled translational natural period). Suggestions are made for new building code provisions.

• 한국지진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지진공학회 2000년도 추계 학술발표회 논문집 Proceedings of EESK Conference-Fall 2000
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• pp.322-329
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• 2000

Current seismic design codes for building structures are based on the methods which can provide enough capacity to satisfy objected performance level and exactly evaluate the seismic performance of buildings. Pushover analysis of fast becoming an accepted method for the seismic evaluation of building structures. The popularity of this approximate, nonlinear static analysis method is due to its conceptual simplicity and ability to graphically describe a capacity and demand of structure. However, some of the shortcomings of the pushover analysis, especially for longer period and irregular buildings, is the inability of method to identify failure mechanisms due to effects of higher modes. In this paper proposed lateral load pattern which includes the contribution of higher modes of vibration for irregular building structure and compared to seismic response obtained by time history.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.131-141
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• 2019

Irregular distribution of mass in elevation is regarded as a structural irregularity by which the modes with high energy levels are excited and in addition, it can lead the structure to withstanding concentration of nonlinear deformations and consequently, suffer from unpredictable local or global damages. Accordingly, with respect to the lack of knowledge and insight towards the performance of concrete buildings making use of tunnel-form structural system in seismic events, it is of utmost significance to assess seismic vulnerability of such structures involved in vertical mass irregularity. To resolve such a crucial drawback, this papers aims to seismically assess vulnerability of RC tunnel-form buildings considering effects of irregular mass distribution. The results indicate that modal responses are not affected by building's height and patterns of mass distribution in elevation. Moreover, there was no considerable effect observed on the performance levels under DBE and MCE hazard scenarios within different patterns of irregular mass distribution. In conclusion, it appears that necessarily of vertical regularity for tunnel-form buildings, is somehow drastic and conservative at least for the buildings and irregularity patterns studied herein.

• 한국지진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지진공학회 2006년도 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.225-232
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• 2006

Three building structures haying piloti frames in the lower two stories were selected as prototypes and were analyzed using nonlinear static analysis to investigate the seismic capacity of these 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), The analytical results were compared with those of shaking table tests with regards to the overstrength and ductility of the irregular buildings. Infilled shear wall in Model 2 and Model 3 induced large overstrength factors, 6.8 and 6.0, respectively, which are about two times larger than that of Model 1, 3.5. The displacement ductility ratio in Model 2 was only 2.5, due to the shear failure of wall in the piloti stories, whereas those of Model 1 and Model 3 reached 3.2.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제91권4호
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• pp.349-355
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• 2024

This paper investigates the influence of the torsional component of earthquake on the nonlinear structural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. It also estimates the equivalent additional eccentricity that results from this component. For this purpose, we generate torsional accelerograms from translational ones and conduct nonlinear seismic analysis on both regular and irregular structures. The results show that the torsional component has a significant impact on the structural response, especially for irregular structures. The equivalent additional eccentricity of the cases studied was higher than 5% which is the value of accidental eccentricity suggested by many seismic codes.

• 대한건축학회논문집:구조계
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• 제35권12호
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• pp.137-148
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• 2019

Korean piloti-type buildings are comprised of pilotis in the first story and shear walls in the upper stories. This vertical irregularity causes excessive lateral plastic deformation on the first story while the upper stories stay elastic. Meanwhile, asymmetric position of structural components such as core walls and columns of RC piloti-type buildings tends to produce torsional irregularities of the structures. Korean Building Code(KBC2016) requires the special seismic load and torsional amplification factor to apply to the piloti-type buildings lower than six-story or 20m if it has vertical and torsional irregularities when the building corresponds to seismic design category C or D. Many Korean low-rised RC buildings fall into the class. Therefore, the special earthquake load and torsional amplification factor are often applied to a building simultaneously. However, it has not been studied enough how much influence each parameter has on buildings with vertical and torsional irregularities at the same time. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of factor special seismic load and torsional amplification on seismic performance of irregular buildings. In this study, a damaged 4^th story piloti-type building by the Pohang earthquake was selected and the earthquake response analysis was carried out with various seismic design methods by the KBC 2016. The effect of the design parameters on seismic performance was analyzed by the dynamic analysis of models with special seismic load and torsional amplification factor based on the selected building. It was concluded that the application of the torsional amplification factor to the reference model to which special seismic design was applied, does not significantly affect the seismic performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제6권5호
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• pp.473-494
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• 2014

Progressive collapse, which is referred to as the collapse of the entire building under local damages, is a common failure mode happened by earthquakes. The collapse process highly depends on the whole structural system. Since, asymmetry of the building plan leads to the local damage concentration; it may intensify the progressive collapse mechanism of asymmetric buildings. In this research the progressive collapse of regular and irregular 6-story RC ordinary moment resisting frame buildings are studied in the presence of the earthquake loads. Collapse process and collapse propagation are investigated using nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in buildings with 5%, 15% and 25% mass asymmetry with respect to the number of collapsed hinges and story drifts criteria. Results show that increasing the value of mass eccentricity makes the asymmetric buildings become unstable earlier and in the early stages with lower number of the collapsed hinges. So, with increasing the mass eccentricity in building, instability and collapse of the entire building occurs earlier, with lower potential of the progressive collapse. It is also demonstrated that with increasing the mass asymmetry the decreasing trend of the number of collapsed beam and column hinges is approximately similar to the decreasing trend in the average story drifts of the mass centers and stiff edges. So, as an alternative to a much difficult-to-calculate local response parameter of the number of collapsed hinges, the story drift, as a global response parameter, measures the potential of progressive collapse more easily.