• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.253-273
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• 2015

The current investigation has been conducted to examine the effect of gravity loads on the seismic responses of the doubly asymmetric, three-dimensional structures comprising walls and frames. The proposed model includes the P-${\Delta}$ effects induced by the building weight. Based on the variational approach, a 3D finite element with two nodes and six DOF per node including P-${\Delta}$ effects is formulated. Dynamic and static governing equations are derived for dynamic and buckling analyzes of buildings braced by wall-frame systems. The influences of P-${\Delta}$ effects and height of the building on tip displacements under Hachinohe earthquake record are investigated through many structural examples.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-87
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• 2014

Interaction between closely-spaced buildings subject to earthquake induced strong ground motions, termed in the literature as "seismic pounding", occurs commonly during major seismic events in contemporary congested urban environments. Seismic pounding is not taken into account by current codes of practice and is rarely considered in practice at the design stage of new buildings constructed "in contact" with existing ones. Thus far, limited research work has been devoted to quantify the influence of slab-to-slab pounding on the inelastic seismic demands at critical locations of structural members in adjacent structures that are not aligned in series. In this respect, this paper considers a typical case study of a "new" reinforced concrete (R/C) EC8-compliant, torsionally sensitive, 7-story corner building constructed within a block, in bi-lateral contact with two existing R/C 5-story structures with same height floors. A non-linear local plasticity numerical model is developed and a series of non-linear time-history analyses is undertaken considering the corner building "in isolation" from the existing ones (no-pounding case), and in combination with the existing ones (pounding case). Numerical results are reported in terms of averages of ratios of peak inelastic rotation demands at all structural elements (beams, columns, shear walls) at each storey. It is shown that seismic pounding reduces on average the inelastic demands of the structural members at the lower floors of the 7-story building. However, the discrepancy in structural response of the entire block due to torsion-induced, bi-directionally seismic pounding is substantial as a result of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the coupled building block system.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rationale behind the transformation process of unique shophouse spatial organization in Phnom Penh. We selected 20 representative shophouses located in the Chinese district of Phnom Penh according to construction period. A qualitative study methodology was applied and field surveys were conducted that included interviews with residents, photographs, sketches, measurements, collecting historic photos, and cataloging maps. Selected cases were analyzed in terms of: basic house data, urban block analysis, and unit analysis. Cases were then classified into two types: private courtyard shophouse (PCS) and shared courtyard shophouse (SCS). PCS refers to shophouse typology that maintains most of the characteristics of early shophouses while being transformed into a modern multi-story apartment within a limited one bay plot. However, SCS refers to shophouses adapted from the indigenous forms of PCS that evolved into a multi-storey and multi-family housing typology that includes features that might have been adapted from Western apartment buildings such as sharing a big courtyard, staircase and corridors. We conclude that shophouses in Phnom Penh have positively adopted a Western building typology, adapted it to local traditions, and finally formulated a new building type that represent indicators of a modernization process gradually accepted by society.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.81-94
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• 1994

It is well recognized that structures designed to resist strong ground motions should be able to withstand substantial inelastic deformations. A simple procedure has been developed in this paper to monitor the dynamic earthquake response (time-history analysis) of both steel and concrete multistorey buildings in the inelastic range. The building is treated as a shear beam model with three degrees of freedom per floor. The entire analysis has been programmed to run on a microcomputer and can output time histories of displacements, velocities, accelerations and member internal forces at any desired location. A record of plastic hinge formation and restoration to elastic state is also provided. Such information can be used in aseismic analysis and design of multistorey buildings so as to control the damage and optimize their performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.983-1000
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• 2016

To date the engineering community has seen facade systems as non-structural elements with high aesthetic value and a barrier between the outdoor and indoor environments. The role of facades in energy use in a building has also been recognized and the industry is also witnessing the emergence of many energy efficient facade systems. This paper will focus on using exterior skin of the double skin facade system as a dissipative movable element during earthquake excitation. The main aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the facade system to act as a damper system to reduce earthquake-induced vibration of the primary structure. Unlike traditional mass dampers, which are usually placed at the top level of structures, the movable/smart double skin facade systems are distributed throughout the entire height of building structures. The outer skin is moveable and can act as a multi tuned mass dampers (MTMDs) that move and dissipate energy during strong earthquake motions. In this paper, using a three dimensional 10-storey building structure as the example, it is shown that with optimal choice of materials for stiffness and damping of brackets connecting the two skins, a substantial portion of earthquake induced vibration energy can be dissipated which leads to avoiding expensive ductile seismic designs. It is shown that the engineering demand parameters (EDPs) for a low-rise building structures subjected to moderate to severe earthquakes can be substantially reduced by introduction of a smart designed double skin system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.269-288
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• 2000

The governing differential equations for free vibration of multi-step orthotropic shear plates with variably distributed mass, stiffness and viscous damping are established. It is shown that a shear plate can be divided into two independent shear bars to determine the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the plate. The jk-th natural frequency of a shear plate is equal to the square root of the square sum of the j-th natural frequency of a shear bar and the k-th natural frequency of another shear bar. The jk-th mode shape of the shear plate is the product of the j-th mode shape of a shear bar and the k-th mode shape of another shear bar. The general solutions of the governing equations of the orthotropic shear plates with various boundary conditions are derived by selecting suitable expressions, such as power functions and exponential functions, for the distributions of stiffness and mass along the height of the plates. A numerical example demonstrates that the present methods are easy to implement and efficient. It is also shown through the numerical example that the selected expressions are suitable for describing the distributions of stiffness and mass of typical multi-storey buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.489-500
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• 2011

The elastic seismic response of plan-asymmetric multi storey steel-frame buildings is investigated under earthquake loading with particular emphasis on forward-rupture directivity and fling records. Three asymmetric building systems are generated with different torsional stiffness and varying static eccentricity. The structural characteristic of these systems are designed according to UBC 97 code and their seismic responses subjected to a set of earthquake records are obtained from the response history analysis (RHA) as well as the linear static analysis (LSA). It is shown that, the elastic torsional response is influenced by the intensity of near-fault ground motions with different energy contents. In the extreme case of very strong earthquakes, the behaviour of torsionally stiff buildings and torsionally flexible buildings may differ substantially due to the fact that the displacement envelope of the deck depends on ground motion characteristics.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.289-306
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• 2010

A gradient-based evolutionary optimization methodology is presented for finding the optimal design of viscous dampers to minimize an objective function defined for a linear multi-storey structure. The maximum value along height of the transfer function amplitudes for the interstorey drifts is taken as the objective function. Since the ground motion includes various uncertainties, the optimal damper placement may be different depending on the ground motion used for design. Furthermore, the transfer function treated as the objective function depends on the properties of structural parameters and added dampers. This implies that a more robust damper design is desired. A reliable and robust damping design system against any unpredictable ground motions can be provided by minimizing the maximum transfer function. Such design system is proposed in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.401-408
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• 2006

An optimum design method for hybrid control systems is proposed in this study. By considering both active and passive control systems as a combined or a hybrid system, the optimization of the hybrid system can be achieved simultaneously. In the proposed approach, we consider design parameters of active control devices and the elements of the feedback gain matrix as design variables for the active control system. Required quantity of the added dampers are also treated as design variables for the passive control system. In the proposed method, the cost of both active and passive control devices, the required control efforts and dynamic responses of a target structure are selected as objective functions to be minimized. To effectively address the multi-objective optimization problem, we adopt a preference-based optimization model and apply a genetic algorithm as a numerical searching technique. As an example to verify the validity of the proposed optimization technique, a wind-excited 20-storey building with hybrid control systems is used and the results are presented.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.304-310
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• 2011

The populations of major cities in Australia are increasing rapidly and facing an acute housing shortage. Traditional apartment procurement techniques involve lengthy lead-times and factory-based, or offsite manufactured (OSM) multi-storey apartment buildings may offer the opportunity to help fulfill the need by significantly reducing build times. Other advantages of OSM may include superior quality, low weight ratios, economies of scale achieved through repetition of prefabricated units, use on infill sites, sustainable design standards and better occupational health and safety. There are also positive labour and training implications, which may help to alleviate an industry-wide shortage of skills through use of semi-skilled labour. Previous uncertainties about the adoption of offsite due to the high capital costs and perception issues were generally based on pre-cast concrete structures, which are quite a different building type in terms of flexibility, construction, delivery and finishes. Identification of drivers and constraints assists in the determination of current industry status, allows for a benchmark to be established and future opportunities and directions for OSM to be determined.