• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.417-433
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• 2023

The maximum ductility and cumulative ductility of connection joints of Buckling-Restrained Braced Frames (BRBF) are critical to the structural overall performance, which should be matched with the BRB ductility. The two-story and one-span BRBF with a one-third scale was tested under cyclic quasi-static loading, and the top-flange beam splice (TFBS) rotational connections were proposed and adopted in BRBF. The deformation capacity of TFBS connections was observed during the test, and the relationship between structural global ductility and local connection ductility was studied. The rotational capacity of the beam-column connections and the stability performance of the BRBs are highly relevant to the structural overall performance. The hysteretic curves of BRBF are stable and full under large displacement demand imposed up to 2% story drift, and energy is dissipated as the large plastic deformation developed in the structural components. The BRBs acted as fuses and yielded first, and the cumulative plastic ductility (CPD) of BRBs is 972.6 of the second floor and 439.7 of the first floor, indicating the excellent energy dissipation capacity of BRBs. Structural members with good local ductility ensure the large global ductility of BRBF. The ductile capacity and hysteretic behavior of BRBF with TFBS connections were compared with those of BRBF with Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections in terms of the experimental results.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.167-175
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• 1988

The principle objective of this study is to evaluate the fatigue behavior of structural steel components of highway bridges subjected to service stresses. The main aspects of this investigation are; 1) a measurement and statistical analysis of service stress cycles observed in highway bridge. 2) fatigue tests under equivalent constant-amplitude(CA) loading and simulated variable-amplitude(VA) loading 3) a evaluation of the fatigue behavior under VA-loading by eqivalent root mean cube (RMC) stress range. Theoretically, the RMC model is adequate in evaluation of fatigue behavior under VA-loading, because the regression coefficient (m) of crack growth rate is 3 approximately. The result of fatigue test shows that the RMC model is fitter than the current RMS model in fatigue evaluation under VA-loading. The interaction effects and sequence effects under VA-loading affect little fatigue life of structural components. As the transition rate of stress ranges is higher, the crack growth rate is higher.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

In this study the progressive collapse behavior of a moment frame with infill steel panels is evaluated using nonlinear static pushdown analysis. The analysis model is a two story two span structure designed only for gravity load, and the load-displacement relationship is obtained with the center column removed. To obtain local stress and strain as well as the global structural behavior, finite element analysis is conducted using ABACUS. Through the analysis the effect of the span length and the thickness of the steel plate on the progressive collapse behavior of the structure is investigated, and the effect of the dividing the infill panel using stud columns is also studied. According to the analysis results, the thickness of the panels required to prevent progressive collapse increases as the span length increases, and as the number of panel division increases the progressive collapse resisting capacity increases slightly but the effect is not significant. It is also observed that when the infill panel is installed in only a part of the span the progressive collapse resisting capacity is somewhat increased.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4D
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• pp.339-349
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• 2010

The objective of this paper is to develop a structural equations model system for the purpose of tourists' excursion behaviour analysis with their information usage. A tourist' excursion behavior defined as activities in the sightseeing region between arriving and leaving time includes indexes with respect to activity' time use and the number of spots. Additionally, such indexes can be modeled as endogenous variables in the structural equation model system on the assumption that they are influenced by the degree of familarity on the sightseeing region, the degree of information usage, and individual attributes. The case study application involves excursion behaviour data such as one-day excursion activity and information usage diary that are observed in the Fuji Five Lakes, Japan. Since the models presented in the paper are available to statistically analyze the covariance among the endogenous variables, they have the advantage of effectiveness analysis on information usage in the excursion area, compared to the prior approaches such as discrete choice models.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2024

The objective of this research is to study experimentally and numerically the behavior of steel beam columns with openings. Although the presence of openings in the beam columns is inevitable, finding ways to maintain strength is crucial. The studied parameters are opening shape, the ratio between opening height to specimen height, the percentage of opening location from support to beam column length, and web slenderness. Experimental tests are conducted including twelve specimens to study the effect of these parameters and record failure load, load deflection curve, and stress strain curve. Two failure modes are observed: local and flexural buckling. Interaction curves plotted from finite element model analysis are also used to expand the parametric study. Changing the location of the opening can decrease failure load by up to 7% and 60% in both normal and moment ratios respectively. Increasing the opening dimension can lead to a drop in the axial ratio by up to 29% and in the moment ratio by up to 74%. The weakest beam column behavior is noticed in specimens with rectangular openings which results from uneven and concentrated stresses around the opening. The main results of this research illustrate that the best location for opening is at 40% - 50% from beam column support. Also, it is advisable to use circular openings instead of rectangular openings in specimens having slender webs because moment ratios are raised by 85% accompanied by a rise in normal ratios by 9%.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.21-41
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• 2010

Multi-span steel-concrete composite (SCC) bridges are very sensitive to earthquake loading. Extensive damage may occur not only in the substructures (piers), which are expected to yield, but also in the other components (e.g., deck, abutments) involved in carrying the seismic loads. Current seismic codes allow the design of regular bridges by means of linear elastic analysis based on inelastic design spectra. In bridges with superstructure transverse motion restrained at the abutments, a dual load path behavior is observed. The sequential yielding of the piers can lead to a substantial change in the stiffness distribution. Thus, force distributions and displacement demand can significantly differ from linear elastic analysis predictions. The objectives of this study are assessing the influence of piers-deck stiffness ratio and of soil-structure interaction effects on the seismic behavior of continuous SCC bridges with dual load path, and evaluating the suitability of linear elastic analysis in predicting the actual seismic behavior of these bridges. Parametric analysis results are presented and discussed for a common bridge typology. The response dependence on the parameters is studied by nonlinear multi-record incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Comparisons are made with linear time history analysis results. The results presented suggest that simplified linear elastic analysis based on inelastic design spectra could produce very inaccurate estimates of the structural behavior of SCC bridges with dual load path.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.799-810
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• 2022

This study investigated the effect of the strengthening efficiency of unbonded steel-bar truss system on the out-of-plane behavior of perforated masonry walls. Four full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) walls with two different planes were prepared using the unbonded steel-bar truss system and a URM walls without strengthening. All masonry walls were tested under constant axial and cyclic lateral loads. The obtained test results indicated that the pinching effect in the out-plane behavior of masonry walls tends to decrease in the in- and out-of-plane strengthened URM walls using the unbonded steel-bar truss system with the higher prestressing force ratio (R_p) of vertical reinforcing bars in the unbonded steel-bar truss system, regardless of the perforated type of the masonry wall. Consequently, the highest maximum shear resistance and cumulative dissipated energy at peak load in the post-peak behavior were observed in the in- and out-plane strengthened URM walls with the highest R_p values, which are 2.7 and 6.0 times higher than those of URM. In particular, the strengthening efficiency of the unbonded steel-bar truss system was primarily attributed to the vertical prestressed steel-bars rather than the diagonal steel-bars, which indicates that the strains in the vertical prestressed steel-bars at the peak load were approximately 1.6 times higher than those in the diagonal steel-bars.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.159-171
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• 2012

Reinforced concrete structures in cold coastal regions are subjected to coupled effects of service load, freeze-thaw cycles and seawater corrosion. This would significantly degrade the performance and therefore shorten the service life of these structures. In the current paper, the mechanical properties of concrete material and the structural behaviour of eccentrically loaded reinforced concrete columns under multiple actions of seawater corrosion, freeze-thaw cycles and persistent load have been studied experimentally. Results show that when exposed to alternating actions of seawater corrosion and freeze-thaw cycles, the compressive strength of concrete decreases with the increased number of freeze-thaw cycles. For reinforced concrete column, if it is only subjected to seawater corrosion and freeze-thaw cycles, the load resistance capacity is found to be reduced by 11.5%. If a more practical service condition of reinforced concrete structures in cold coastal regions is simulated, i.e., the environmental factors are coupled with persistent loading, a rapid drop of 15% - 26.9% in the ultimate capacity of the eccentrically loaded reinforced concrete column is identified. Moreover, it is observed that the increase of eccentric load serves to accelerate the deterioration of column structural behavior.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.663-672
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• 2001

Numerous failures in welded connections in steel moment-resisting building frames (SMRF) were observed when buildings were inspected after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. These observations raised concerns about the effectiveness of such frames for resisting strong earthquake ground motions. The behavior of SMRFs during an earthquake must be assessed using nonlinear dynamic analysis, and such assessments must permit the deterioration in connection strength to capture the behavior of the frame. The uncertainties that underlie both structural and dynamic loading also need to be included in the analysis process. This paper describes the analysis of one of approximately 200 SMRFs that suffered damage to its welded beam-to-column connections from the Northridge Earthquake is evaluated. Nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of this SMRF in the time domain is performed using ground motions representing the Northridge Earthquake. Subsequently, a detailed uncertainty analysis is conducted for the building using an ensemble of earthquake ground motions. Probability distributions for deformation-related limit states, described in terms of maximum roof displacement or interstory drift, are constructed. Building fragilities that are useful for condition assessment of damaged building structures and for performance-based design are developed from these distributions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2016

The hyperbolic stress-strain model has been shown to be valid for modeling nonlinear stress-strain behavior for rockfill materials. The Duncan-Chang nonlinear constitutive model was adopted to characterize the behavior of the modeled rockfill materials in this study. Accurately estimating the model parameters of rockfill materials is a key problem for simulating dam deformations during both the dam construction period and the dam operation period. In order to estimate model parameters, triaxial compression experiments of rockfill materials were performed. Based on a genetic algorithm, the constitutive model parameters of the rockfill material were determined from the triaxial compression experimental data. The investigation results show that the predicted strains provide satisfactory precision when compared with the observed strains and the strains forecasted by a gradient-based optimization algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed inversion procedure of model parameters was verified by experimental investigation in a laboratory.