• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.211-225
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• 1994

Responses of asymmetrical multistorey buildings to earthquakes are obtained by quasi-static code approach and real time dynamic analysis, using two different structural models. In the first model, all vertical members are assumed to be restrained at the slab levels and hence their end rotations, about horizontal axes, are taken as zero. In the second model this restriction is removed and the rotation is assumed to be proportional to the lateral stiffness of the member. A simple microcomputer based procedure is used in the analyses, by both models. Numerical examples are presented where results obtained from both the models are given. Effects of modelling on the response of three buildings, each with a different type and degree of asymmetry, are studied. Results for deflections and shear forces are presented and the effects of the type of model on the response are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.6
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• pp.671-682
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• 2018

The effect of earthquake induced torsion, due to mass eccentricities, is investigated with the objective of providing practical design guidelines for minimizing the torsional response of building structures. Current code provisions recommend performing three dimensional static or dynamic analyses, which involve shifting the centers of the floor masses from their nominal positions to what is called an accidental eccentricity. This procedure however may significantly increase the design cost of multistory buildings, due to the numerous possible spatial combinations of mass eccentricities and it is doubtful whether such a cost would be justifiable. This paper addresses this issue on a theoretical basis and investigates the torsional response of asymmetric multistory buildings in relation to their behavior when all floor masses lie on the same vertical line. This approach provides an insight on the overall seismic response of buildings and reveals how the torsional response of a structure is influenced by an arbitrary spatial combination of mass eccentricities. It also provides practical guidelines of how a structural configuration may be designed to sustain minor torsion, which is the main objective of any practicing engineer. A parametric study is presented on 9-story common building types having a mixed-type lateral load resisting system (frames, walls, coupled wall bents) and representative heightwise variations of accidental eccentricities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.487-502
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• 2014

In buildings structures, the flexural stiffness reduction of beams and columns due to concrete cracking plays an important role in the nonlinear load-deformation response of reinforced concrete structures under service loads. Most Seismic Design Codes do not precise effective stiffness to be used in seismic analysis for structures of reinforced concrete elements, therefore uncracked section properties are usually considered in computing structural stiffness. But, uncracked stiffness will never be fully recovered during or after seismic response. In the present study, the effect of concrete cracking on the lateral response of structure has been taken into account. Totally 120 cases of 3 Dimensional Dynamic Analysis which considers the real and accidental torsional effects are performed using ETABS to determine the effective structural system across the height, which ensures the performance and the economic dimensions that achieve the saving in concrete and steel amounts thus achieve lower cost. The result findings exhibits that the dual system was the most efficient lateral load resisting system based on deflection criterion, as they yielded the least values of lateral displacements and inter-storey drifts. The shear wall system was the most economical lateral load resisting compared to moment resisting frame and dual system but they yielded the large values of lateral displacements in top storeys. Wall systems executes tremendous stiffness at the lower levels of the building, while moment frames typically restrain considerable deformations and provide significant energy dissipation under inelastic deformations at the upper levels. Cracking found to be more impact over moment resisting frames compared to the Shear wall systems. The behavior of various lateral load resisting systems with respect to time period, mode shapes, storey drift etc. are discussed in detail.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.221-248
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• 2003

The design of high-rise building is often influenced by wind-induced motions such as accelerations and lateral deflections. Consequently, the building's structural stiffness and dynamic (vibration periods and damping) properties become important parameters in the determination of such motions. The approximate methods and empirical expressions used to quantify these parameters at the design phase tend to yield values significantly different from each other. In view of this, there is a need to examine how actual buildings in the field respond to dynamic wind loading in order to ascertain a more realistic model for the dynamic behavior of buildings. This paper describes the findings from full-scale measurements of the wind-induced response of typical high-rise buildings in Singapore, and recommends an empirical forecast model for periods of vibration of typical buildings in Singapore, an appropriate computer model for determining the periods of vibration, and appropriate expressions which relate the wind speed to accelerations in buildings based on wind tunnel force balance model test and field results.

• 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.23 no.3
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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.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.79-88
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• 2011

Recently, complex-shaped tall buildings represented by 3T(Twisted, Tapered, Tilted) are planed largely. A diagrid structural system is one of the most widely used structural system for complex-shaped tall buildings because of its structural efficiency and formativeness. Plans for tilted tall buildings are largely presented because of beauty of a sculpture and many of buildings use diagrid structural systems. Lateral displacements of tilted tall buildings are induced by not only lateral loads but also self weight. Therefore, reduction of lateral responses of tilted tall buildings is as important as typical tall buildings. In this study, a smart TMD is introduced to reduce seismic responses of tilted diagrid tall buildings and its control performance is evaluated. MR damper is employed for the smart TMD and ground-hook controller is used as a control algorithm for the smart TMD. 100-story tall building is used as an example structure. Control performances of uncontrolled case, controlled case with TMD and controlled case with smart TMD are compared and investigated. Numerical simulation has shown that smart TMD presented good control performance for displacement response but acceleration response was not controlled well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.791-818
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• 2015

RC buildings constitute the prevailing type of construction in earthquake-prone region like Kathmandu Valley. Most of these building constructions were based on conventional methods. In this context, the present paper studied the seismic behaviour of existing RC buildings in Kathmandu Valley. For this, four representative building structures with different design and construction, namely a building: (a) representing the non-engineered construction (RC1 and RC2) and (b) engineered construction (RC3 and RC4) has been selected for analysis. The dynamic properties of the case study building models are analyzed and the corresponding interaction with seismic action is studied by means of non-linear analyses. The structural response measures such as capacity curve, inter-storey drift and the effect of geometric non-linearities are evaluated for the two orthogonal directions. The effect of plan and vertical irregularity on the performance of the structures was studied by comparing the results of two engineered buildings. This was achieved through non-linear dynamic analysis with a synthetic earthquake subjected to X, Y and $45^{\circ}$ loading directions. The nature of the capacity curve represents the strong impact of the P-delta effect, leading to a reduction of the global lateral stiffness and reducing the strength of the structure. The non-engineered structures experience inter-storey drift demands higher than the engineered building models. Moreover, these buildings have very low lateral resistant, lesser the stiffness and limited ductility. Finally, a seismic safety assessment is performed based on the proposed drift limits. Result indicates that most of the existing buildings in Nepal exhibit inadequate seismic performance.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.495-504
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• 2018

The possibility of earthquakes in vulnerable regions indicates that efficient technique is required for seismic protection of buildings. During the recent decades, the concept is moving towards the insertion of base isolation on seismic prone buildings. So, investigation of structural behavior is a burning topic for buildings to be isolated in base level by bearing device. This study deals with the incorporation of base isolation system and focuses the changes of structural responses for different types of Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB) isolators. A number of sixteen model buildings have been simulated selecting twelve types of bearing systems as well as conventional fixed-base (FB) scheme. The superstructures of the high-rise buildings are represented by finite element assemblage adopting multi-degree of freedoms. Static and dynamic analyses are carried out for FB and base isolated (BI) buildings. The dynamic analysis in finite element package has been performed by the nonlinear time history analysis (THA) based on the site-specific seismic excitation and compared employing eminent earthquakes. The influence of the model type and the alteration in superstructure behavior of the isolated buildings have been duly assessed. The results of the 3D multistory structures show that the lateral forces, displacement, inertia and story accelerations of the superstructure of the seismic prone buildings are significantly reduced due to bearing insertion. The nonlinear dynamic analysis shows 12 to 40% lessening in base shear when LRB is incorporated leading to substantial allowance of horizontal displacement. It is revealed that the LRB isolators might be potential options to diminish the respective floor accelerations, inertia, displacements and base shear whatever the condition coincides. The isolators with lower force intercept but higher isolation period is found to be better for decreasing base shear, floor acceleration and inertia force leading to reduction of structural and non-structural damage. However, LRB with lower isolator period seems to be more effective in dropping displacement at bearing interface aimed at reducing horizontal shift of building structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

Due to the frequency and magnitude of some loads produced by gusts of turbulent wind, building floors can develop lateral displacements and significant accelerations which can produce strong inertial forces on structural, non-structural elements and occupants. A device that can help to reduce the floor accelerations is the well-known Tuned Mass Damper (TMD); however, nowadays there is no enough information about its capacity in order to dissipate energy of turbulent wind loads. For this reason, in this paper different buildings with and without TMD are modeled and dynamically analyzed under simulated wind loads in order to study the reduction of peak floor accelerations. The results indicate that peak floor accelerations can be reduced up to 40% when TMD are incorporated in the buildings, which demonstrated that the Tuned Mass Damper is an efficient device to reduce the wind effects on tall buildings.