• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.789-830
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• 2015

The recent re-assessment of the seismic hazard in Europe led for many regions of low to moderate seismicity to an increase in the seismic demand. As a consequence, several modern unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, constructed with reinforced concrete (RC) slabs that provide an efficient rigid diaphragm action, no longer satisfy the seismic design check and have been retrofitted by adding or replacing URM walls with RC walls. Of late, also several new construction projects have been conceived directly as buildings with both RC and URM walls. Despite the widespread use of such construction technique, very little is known about the seismic behaviour of mixed RC-URM wall structures and codes do not provide adequate support to designers. The aim of the paper is therefore to propose a displacement-based design methodology for the design of mixed RC-URM edifices and the retrofit of URM buildings by replacing or adding selected URM walls with RC ones. The article describes also two tools developed for estimating important quantities relevant for the displacement-based design of structures with both RC and URM walls. The tools are (i) a mechanical model based on the shear-flexure interaction between URM and RC walls and (ii) an elastic model for estimating the contribution of the RC slabs to the overturning moment capacity of the system. In the last part of the article the proposed design method is verified through nonlinear dynamic analyses of several case studies. These results show that the proposed design approach has the ability of controlling the displacement profile of the designed structures, avoiding concentration of deformations in one single storey, a typical feature of URM wall structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2021

Under a severe environment of multiple hazards such as earthquakes and winds, the life-cycle performance of engineering structures may inevitably be deteriorated due to the fatigue effect caused by long-term exposure to wind loads, which would further increase the structural vulnerability to earthquakes. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the lifetime structural seismic performance under the effect of wind-induced fatigue considering different sources of uncertainties. The seismic behavior of a high-rise steel-concrete composite frame with buckling-restrained braces (FBRB) during its service life is systematically investigated using the proposed approach. Recorded field data for the wind hazard of Fuzhou, Fujian Province of China from Jan. 1, 1980 to Mar. 31, 2019 is collected, based on which the distribution of wind velocity is constructed by the Gumbel model after comparisons. The OpenSees platform is employed to establish the numerical model of the FBRB and conduct subsequent numerical computations. Allowed for the uncertainties caused by the wind generation and structural modeling, the final annual fatigue damage takes the average of 50 groups of simulations. The lifetime structural performance assessments, including static pushover analyses, nonlinear dynamic time history analyses and fragility analyses, are conducted on the time-dependent finite element (FE) models which are modified in lines with the material deterioration models. The results indicate that the structural performance tends to degrade over time under the effect of fatigue, while the influencing degree of fatigue varies with the duration time of fatigue process and seismic intensity. The impact of wind-induced fatigue on structural responses and fragilities are explicitly quantified and discussed in details.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.201-216
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• 2014

In this paper the vulnerability of the confined masonry buildings is evaluated analytically. The proposed approach includes the nonlinear dynamic analysis of the two-story confined masonry buildings with common plan as a reference structure. In this approach the damage level is calculated based on the probability of exceedance of loss vs a specified ground motion in the form of fragility curves. The fragility curves of confined masonry wall buildings are presented in two levels of limit states corresponding to elastic and maximum strength versus PGA based on analytical method. In this regard the randomness of parameters indicating the characteristics of the building structure as well as ground motion is considered as likely uncertainties. In order to develop the analytical fragility curves the proposed analytical models of confined masonry walls in a previous investigation of the authors, are used to specify the damage indices and responses of the structure. In order to obtain damage indices a series of pushover analyses are performed, and to identify the seismic demand a series of nonlinear dynamic analysis are conducted. Finally by considering various mechanical and geometric parameters of masonry walls and numerous accelerograms, the fragility curves with assuming a log normal distribution of data are derived based on capacity and demand of building structures in a probabilistic approach.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.631-644
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• 2014

Seismic assessment and retrofitting of existing structure is a complicated work that typically requires more sophisticated analyses than performing a new design. Before the implementation of a Code for seismic design of buildings (GBJ 11-89), not enough attention has been paid on seismic performance of structures and a great part of the existing reinforced concrete structures built in China have been poorly designed according to the new version of the same code (GB 50011-2010). This paper presents a case study of seismic assessment of a non-seismically designed reinforced concrete building in China. The structural responses are evaluated using the nonlinear static procedure (the so-called pushover analysis), which requires its introduction within a process that allows the estimation of the demand, against which the capacity is then compared with. The capacity of all structural members can be determined following the design code. Based on the structural performance, suitable retrofitting strategies are selected and implemented to the existing system. The retrofitted structure is analyzed again to check the effectiveness of the rehabilitation. Different types of retrofitting strategy are discussed and classified according to their complexity and benefits. Finally, a proper intervention methodology is utilized to upgrade this typical low-rise non-ductile building.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.293-311
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• 2016

A parametric study on the nonlinear seismic response of isolated reinforced concrete structural frame is presented. Three prototype frames designed according to the 1954 Hellenic seismic code, with number of floor ranging from 1 to 3 were considered. These low rise frames are representative of many existing reinforced concrete buildings in Greece. The efficacy of the implementation of both lead rubber bearings (LRB) and friction pendulum isolators (FPI) base isolation systems were examined. The selection of the isolation devices was made according to the ratio $T_{is}/T_{fb}$, where Tis is the period of the base isolation system and $T_{bf}$ is the period of the fixed-base building. The main purpose of this comprehensive study is to investigate the effect of the isolation system period on the seismic response of inadequately designed low rise buildings. Thus, the implementation of isolation systems which correspond to the ratio $T_{is}/T_{fb}$ that values from 3 to 5 is studied. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed to investigate the response of the isolated structures using a set of three natural seismic ground motions. The evaluation of each retrofitting case was made in terms of storey drift and storey shear force while in view of serviceability it was made in terms of storey acceleration. Finally, the maximum developed displacements and the residual displacements of the isolation systems are presented.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.257-277
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• 2011

An evaluation is presented of the response of a 3-storey R/C structure during the destructive Lefkada earthquake of 14/08/2003. Key aspects of the event include: (1) the unusually strong levels of ground motion (PGA = 0.48 g, $SA_{max}$ = 2.2 g) recorded approximately 10 km from fault, in downtown Lefkada; (2) the surprisingly low structural damage in the area; (3) the very soft soil conditions ($V_{s,max}$ = 150 m/s). Structural, geotechnical and seismological aspects of the earthquake are discussed. The study focuses on a 3-storey building, an elongated structure of rectangular plan supported on strip footings, that suffered severe column damage in the longitudinal direction, yet minor damage in the transverse one. Detailed spectral and time-history analyses highlight the interplay of soil, foundation and superstructure in modifying seismic demand in the two orthogonal directions of the building. It is shown that soil-structure interaction may affect inelastic seismic response and alter the dynamic behavior even for relatively flexible systems such as the structure at hand.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2017

The fundamental goal of this study is to minimize the uncertainty of the median fragility curve and to assess the structural vulnerability under earthquake excitation. Bayesian Inference with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation has been presented for efficient collapse response assessment of the independent intake water tower. The intake tower is significantly used as a diversion type of the hydropower station for maintaining power plant, reservoir and spillway tunnel. Therefore, the seismic fragility assessment of the intake tower is a pivotal component for estimating total system risk of the reservoir. In this investigation, an asymmetrical independent slender reinforced concrete structure is considered. The Bayesian Inference method provides the flexibility to integrate the prior information of collapse response data with the numerical analysis results. The preliminary information of risk data can be obtained from various sources like experiments, existing studies, and simplified linear dynamic analysis or nonlinear static analysis. The conventional lognormal model is used for plotting the fragility curve using the data from time history simulation and nonlinear static pushover analysis respectively. The Bayesian Inference approach is applied for integrating the data from both analyses with the help of MCMC simulation. The method achieves meaningful improvement of uncertainty associated with the fragility curve, and provides significant statistical and computational efficiency.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.461-481
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• 2016

The research described in this paper investigates the seismic behaviour of lightly reinforced concrete (RC) bearing sandwich panels, heavily conditioned by shear deformation. A numerical model has been prepared, within an open source finite element (FE) platform, to simulate the experimental response of this emerging structural system, whose squat-type geometry affects performance and failure mode. Calibration of this equivalent mechanical model, consisting of a group of regularly spaced vertical elements in combination with a layer of nonlinear springs, which represent the cyclic behaviour of concrete and steel, has been conducted by means of a series of pseudo-static cyclic tests performed on single full-scale prototypes with or without openings. Both cantilevered and fixed-end shear walls have been analyzed. After validation, this numerical procedure, including cyclic-related mechanisms, such as buckling and subsequent slippage of reinforcing re-bars, as well as concrete crushing at the base of the wall, has been used to assess the capacity of two- and three-dimensional low- to mid-rise box-type buildings and, hence, to estimate their strength reduction factors, on the basis of conventional pushover analyses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.387-406
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• 2016

The main purpose of this paper is to determine the dynamic characteristics and the structural stability of the two approach viaducts of the Bosphorus Suspension Bridge under the expected stresses that would be caused during earthquake conditions. The Ortakoy and the Beylerbeyi approach viaducts constitute the side spans of the bridge at two locations. The bridge's main span over the Bosphorus is suspended, whereas they are supported at the base at either end. For the numerical investigation of the viaducts, 3-D computational structural finite element-FE models were developed. Their natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes were obtained, analyzed, presented and compared. The performances of the viaducts, under earthquake conditions, were studied considering the P-Delta effects implementing the push-over (POA) and the non-linear time-history analyses (NTHA). For the NTHA, three earthquake ground motions were generated depending on the location of the bridge. Seismic performances of the viaducts were determined in accordance with the requirements of the Turkish Seismic Code for the Earthquake Design of Railways Bridges (TSC-R/2008) and those of Caltrans (CALTRANS-2001) given for Seismic Design of Steel Bridges, separately. Furthermore, the investigation was extended for evaluating the possible need for retrofitting in the future. After the analysis of the resultant data, a retrofit recommendation for the viaducts was presented.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

In the past, Korea was classified as a region not affected by earthquakes. However, recent increase of earthquakes has forced to strengthen standards of earthquake resistant designs of structures to minimize seismic damage. In addition, it was thought that masonry infill walls in buildings are only acting as partitions, so these walls are not considered in analyzing building structures. But it was found that when seismic loads are applied to a structure with masonry infill walls, the walls affect the structure. Accordingly, this study conducted nonlinear static analyses for a structure constructed before applying earthquake resistant designs in two cases: when considering masonry walls and when not. The result showed that the seismic performance of the structure is insufficient. Thus, the structural resistance of the structure was also studied in two cases: when reinforcing with steel plate braces and when using carbon fiber braces. In the two cases reinforcing two different stiffeners, it was appeared that the behaviors of the structure were similar, though the cross-section area of a carbon fiber brace used to reinforcing the structure is only 12.6% of a steel plate brace, and its weight is only 2.8%. Thus, the reinforcing effect of the thin, light-weighted carbon fiber brace is much larger than that of the steel plate brace, when considering usability and constructability of both materials.