• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.99-123
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• 2015

In this study, structural vulnerability of reinforced concrete moment resisting frames (RC-MRFs) by considering the Iran-specific characteristics is investigated to manage the earthquake risk in terms of multicomponent seismic excitations. Low and medium rise RC-MRFs, which constitute approximately 80-90% of the total buildings stock in Iran, are focused in this fragility-based assessment. The seismic design of 3-12 story RC-MRFs are carried out according to the Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings (Standard No. 2800), and the analytical models are formed accordingly in open source nonlinear platforms. Frame structures are categorized in three subclasses according to the specific characteristics of construction practice and the observed seismic performance after major earthquakes in Iran. Both far and near fields' ground motions have been considered in the fragility estimation. An optimal intensity measure (IM) called Sa, avg and beta probability distribution were used to obtain reliable fragility-based database for earthquake damage and loss estimation of RC buildings stock in urban areas of Iran. Nonlinear incremental dynamic analyses by means of lumped-parameter based structural models have been simulated and performed to extract the fragility curves. Approximate confidence bounds are developed to represent the epistemic uncertainties inherent in the fragility estimations. Consequently, it's shown that including vertical ground motion in the analysis is highly recommended for reliable seismic assessment of RC buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.515-527
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• 2017

Recently, Friction dampers become popular due to the desirable performance in the energy dissipation of lateral loads. A lot of research which has been conducted on these dampers results in developing friction dampers with low sensitivity to the number of cycles and temperature increases. Friction dampers impose high residual drifts to the buildings because of low post-yield stiffness of the damper which results from increasing lateral displacement and period of buildings. This issue can be more critical under strong aftershocks which results in increasing of structural damages. In this paper, in addition to the assessment of aftershock on steel buildings equipped with friction dampers, methods for controlling residual drifts and decreasing the costs of retrofitting are investigated. Utilizing rigid connections as a lateral dual system and activating lateral stiffness of gravity columns by adding elastic braces are as an example of effective methods investigated in this research. The results of nonlinear time history analyses on the low to medium rise steel frames equipped with friction dampers illustrate a rise in residual drifts as the result of aftershocks. In addition, the results show that different slip loads of friction damper can affect the residual drifts. Furthermore, elastic stories in comparison to rigid connections can reduce residual drifts of buildings in an effective fashion, when most slip loads of friction dampers are considered.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.379-390
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• 2018

In this study, a numerical approach based on mid-point integrated finite elements and a viscous boundary is proposed for time-domain wave-propagation analyses in infinite poroelastic media. The proposed approach is accurate, efficient, and easy to implement in time-domain analyses. In the approach, an infinite domain is truncated at some distance. The truncated domain is represented by mid-point integrated finite elements with real element-lengths and a viscous boundary is attached to the end of the domain. Given that the dynamic behaviors of the proposed model can be expressed in terms of mass, damping, and stiffness matrices only, it can be implemented easily in the displacement-based finite-element formulation. No convolutional operations are required for time-domain calculations because the coefficient matrices are constant. The proposed numerical approach is applied to typical wave-propagation and soil-structure interaction problems. The model is verified to produce accurate and stable results. It is demonstrated that the numerical approach can be applied successfully to nonlinear soil-structure interaction problems.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.51-55
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• 2004

This paper presents a fast and stable imaging scheme using the localized nonlinear (LN) approximation of integral equation (IE) solutions for inverting electromagnetic data obtained in a crosswell survey. The medium is assumed to be cylindrically symmetric about a source borehole, and to maintain the symmetry a vertical magnetic dipole is used as a source. To find an optimum balance between data fitting and smoothness constraint, we introduce an automatic selection scheme for a Lagrange multiplier, which is sought at each iteration with a least misfit criterion. In this selection scheme, the IE algorithm is quite attractive for saving computing time because Green's functions, whose calculation is a most time-consuming part in IE methods, are repeatedly re-usable throughout the inversion process. The inversion scheme using the LN approximation has been tested to show its stability and efficiency, using both synthetic and field data. The inverted image derived from the field data, collected in a pilot experiment of water-flood monitoring in an oil field, is successfully compared with that derived by a 2.5-dimensional inversion scheme.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.27-33
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• 2017

Nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed to calculate the response of U-shaped cantilever retaining structure under seismic loading using the finite element (FE) analysis program OpenSees. A particular interest of the study is to evaluate whether the moment demand in the cantilever can be accurately predicted, because it is an important component in the seismic design. The numerical model is validated against a centrifuge test that was performed on cantilever walls with dry medium dense sand in backfill. Seismic analysis is performed using the pressure-dependent, multi-yield-surface, plasticity based soil constitutive model implemented in OpenSees. Normal springs are used to simulate the soil-structure interface. Comparison with centrifuge show that FE analysis provides good estimates of both the acceleration response and bending moment. The lateral earth pressure near the bottom of the wall is overestimated in the numerical model, but this does not contribute to a higher prediction of the moment.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.6 s.40
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• pp.67-72
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• 2004

In this study the overstrength factors of medium to low-rise bucking restrained braced frames (BRBF) were evaluated. Various design variables, such as number of stories, span length, yield strength of the brace, level of earthquake load, and the response modification factors. The overstrength factors were obtained using the nonlinear static analysis following the procedure proposed by ATC-19. According to the analysis results, the overstrength factors obtained from this study were generally larger than those proposed in 'AISC/SEAOC Recommended Provisions for BRBF'.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1091-1114
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• 2015

The adequacy of a number of advanced earthquake Intensity Measures (IMs) to predict the structural damage of earthquake resistant 3D R/C buildings is investigated in the present paper. To achieve this purpose three symmetric in plan and three asymmetric 5-storey R/C buildings are analyzed by nonlinear time history analysis using 74 bidirectional earthquake records. The two horizontal accelerograms of each ground motion are applied along the structural axes of the buildings and the structural damage is expressed in terms of the maximum and average interstorey drift as well as the overall structural damage index. For each individual pair of accelerograms the values of the aforementioned seismic damage measures are determined. Then, they are correlated with several strong motion scalar IMs that take into account both earthquake and structural characteristics. The research identified certain IMs which exhibit strong correlation with the seismic damage measures of the studied buildings. However, the degree of correlation between IMs and the seismic damage depends on the damage measure adopted. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the widely used spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure is a relatively good IM for medium rise R/C buildings that possess small structural eccentricity.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2012

We numerically demonstrate the performance of a plasmonic lens composed of an array of nanoslits perforated on thin metallic film with slanted cuts on the output surface. Embedding Kerr nonlinear material in nanoslits is employed to modulate the output beam. A two dimensional nonlinear-dispersive finite-difference time-domain (2D N-D-FDTD) method is utilized. The performance parameters of the proposed lens such as focal length, full-width half-maximum, depth of focus and the efficiency of focusing are investigated. The structure is illuminated by a TM-polarized plane wave and a Gaussian beam. The effect of the beam waist of the Gaussian beam and the incident light intensity on the focusing effect is explored. An exact formula is proposed to derive electric field E from electric flux density D in a Kerr-Dispersive medium. Surface plasmon (SPs) modes and Fabry-Perot (F-P) resonances are used to explain the physical origin of the light focusing phenomenon. Focused ion beam milling can be implemented to fabricate the proposed lens. It can find valuable potential applications in integrated optics and for tuning purposes.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2002

A computationally efficient inversion scheme has been developed using the extended Born or localized nonlinear approximation to analyze electromagnetic fields obtained in a single-hole environment. The medium is assumed to be cylindrically symmetric about the borehole, and to maintain the symmetry vertical magnetic dipole source is used throughout. The efficiency and robustness of an inversion scheme is very much dependent on the proper use of Lagrange multiplier, which is often provided manually to achieve desired convergence. In this study, an automatic Lagrange multiplier selection scheme has been developed to enhance the utility of the inversion scheme in handling field data. The inversion scheme has been tested using synthetic data to show its stability and effectiveness.

• Journal of Information Technology Application
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.25-40
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• 2001

This paper deals with the problem of generating optimal polynomials using Genetic Programming(GP). The polynomial should approximate nonlinear response surfaces. Also, there should be a consideration regarding the size of the polynomial, It is not desirable if the polynomial is too large. To build small or medium size of polynomials that enable to model nonlinear response surfaces, we use the low order Tailor series in the function set of GP, and put the constrain on generating GP tree during the evolving process in order to prevent GP trees from becoming too large size of polynomials. Also, GAGPT(Group of Additive Genetic Programming Trees) is adopted to help achieving such purpose. Two examples are given to demonstrate our method.