• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.423-441
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• 2014

The high frequency base balance (HFBB) technique is a convenient and relatively fast wind tunnel testing technique for predicting wind-induced forces for tall building design. While modern tall building design has seen a number architecturally remarkable buildings constructed recently, the characteristics of those buildings are significantly different to those that were common when the HFBB technique was originally developed. In particular, the prediction of generalized forces for buildings with 3-dimensional mode shapes has a number of inherent uncertainties and challenges that need to be overcome to accurately predict building loads and responses. As an alternative to the more conventional application of general mode shape correction factors, an analysis methodology, referred to as the linear-mode-shape (LMS) method, has been recently developed to allow better estimates of the generalized forces by establishing a new set of centers at which the translational mode shapes are linear. The LMS method was initially evaluated and compared with the methods using mode shape correction factors for a rectangular building, which was wind tunnel tested in isolation in an open terrain for five incident wind angles at $22.5^{\circ}$ increments from $0^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$. The results demonstrated that the LMS method provides more accurate predictions of the wind-induced loads and building responses than the application of mode shape correction factors. The LMS method was subsequently applied to a tall building project in Hong Kong. The building considered in the current study is located in a heavily developed business district and surrounded by tall buildings and mixed terrain. The HFBB results validated the versatility of the LMS method for the structural design of an actual tall building subjected to the varied wind characteristics caused by the surroundings. In comparison, the application of mode shape correction factors in the HFBB analysis did not directly take into account the influence of the site specific characteristics on the actual wind loads, hence their estimates of the building responses have a higher variability.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2021

Dynamic vibration absorbers (DVAs) in the form of tuned sloshing dampers (TSDs) and tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are commonly used to reduce the wind-induced motion of high-rise buildings. Full-scale performance of structure-DVA systems must be evaluated during the DVA commissioning process using structural monitoring data. While the random decrement technique (RDT) is sometimes employed to evaluate the DVA performance, it is shown to have no theoretical justification for application to structure-DVA systems, and to produce erroneous results. Subsequently, several practical methods with a sound theoretical basis are presented and illustrated using simulated and real-world data. By monitoring the responses of the structure and DVA simultaneously, it is possible to directly measure the effective damping of the system or perform system identification from which the DVA performance can be evaluated.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.537-564
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• 2015

Excessive motions in buildings cause occupants to become uncomfortable and nervous. This is particularly detrimental to the tenants and ultimately the owner of the building, with respect to financial considerations. Serviceability issues, such as excessive accelerations and inter-story drifts, are more prevalent today due to advancements in the structural systems, strength of materials, and design practices. These factors allow buildings to be taller, lighter, and more flexible, thereby exacerbating the impact of dynamic responses. There is a growing need for innovative and effective techniques to reduce the serviceability responses of these tall buildings. The current study considers a case study of a real building to show the effectiveness and robustness of the TLD in reducing the coupled lateral-torsional motion of this high-rise building under wind loading. Three unique multi-modal TLD systems are designed specifically to mitigate the torsional response of the building. A procedure is developed to analyze a structure-TLD system using High Frequency Force Balance (HFFB) test data from the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL) at the University of Western Ontario. The effectiveness of the unique TLD systems is investigated. In addition, a parametric study is conducted to determine the robustness of the systems in reducing the serviceability responses. Three practical parameters are varied to investigate the robustness of the TLD system: the height of water inside the tanks, the amplitude modification factor, and the structural modal frequencies.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.385-396
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• 2017

The recent advancements in sensing technologies allow us to record measurements from target structures at multiple locations and with relatively high spatial resolution. Such measurements can be used to develop data-driven methodologies for condition assessment, control, and health monitoring of target structures. One of the state-of-the-art technologies, Fiber Optic Strain Sensors (FOSS), is developed at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, and is based on Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors. These strain sensors are accurate, lightweight, and can provide almost continuous strain-field measurements along the length of the fiber. The strain measurements can then be used for real-time shape-sensing and operational load-estimation of complex structural systems. While several works have demonstrated the successful implementation of FOSS on large-scale real-life aerospace structures (i.e., airplane wings), there is paucity of studies in the literature that have investigated the potential of extending the application of FOSS into civil structures (e.g., tall buildings, bridges, etc.). This work assesses the feasibility of using FOSS to predict operational loads (e.g., wind loads) on chain-like structures. A thorough investigation is performed using analytical, computational, and experimental models of a 4-story steel building test specimen, developed at the University of Southern California. This study provides guidelines on the implementation of the FOSS technology on building-like structures, addresses the associated technical challenges, and suggests potential modifications to a load-estimation algorithm, to achieve a robust methodology for predicting operational loads using strain-field measurements.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.147-152
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• 2007

Numerous non-destructive tests(NDT) to assess the safety of real structures have been developed. System identification(SI) techniques using dynamic responses and behaviors of structural systems become an outstanding issue of researchers. However the conventional SI techniques are identified to be non-practical to the complex and tall buildings, due to limitation of the availability of an accurate data that is magnitude or location of external loads. In most SI approaches, the information on input loading and output responses must be known. In many cases, measuring the input information may take most of the resources, and it is very difficult to accurately measure the input information during actual vibrations of practical importance, e.g., earthquakes, winds, micro seismic tremors, and mechanical vibration. However, the desirability and application potential of SI to real structures could be highly improved if an algorithm is available that can estimate structural parameters based on the response data alone without the input information. Thus a technique to estimate structural properties of building without input measurement data and using limited response is essential in structural health monitoring. In this study, shaking table tests on three-story plane frame steel structures were performed. Out-put only model analysis on the measured data was performed, and the dynamic properties were inverse analyzed using least square method in time domain. In results damage detection was performed in each member level, which was performed at story level in conventional SI techniques of frequency domain.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.517-544
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• 2007

This study shows a fuzzy tuning scheme to fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC) for seismic isolation of earthquake-excited structures. The sliding surface can rotate in the phase plane in such a direction that the seismic isolation can be improved. Since ideal sliding mode control requires very fast switch on the input, which can not be provided by real actuators, some modifications to the conventional sliding-mode controller have been proposed based on fuzzy logic. A superior control performance has been obtained with FSMC to deal with problems of uncertainty, imprecision and time delay. Furthermore, using the fuzzy moving sliding surface, the excellent system response is obtained if comparing with the conventional sliding mode controller (SMC), as well as reducing chattering effect. For simulation validation of the proposed seismic response control, 16-floor tall building has been considered. Simulations for six different seismic events, Elcentro (1940), Hyogoken (1995), Northridge (1994), Takochi-oki (1968), the east-west acceleration component of D$\ddot{u}$zce and Bolu records of 1999 D$\ddot{u}$zce-Bolu earthquake in Turkey, have been performed for assessing the effectiveness of the proposed control approach. Then, the simulations have been presented with figures and tables. As a result, the performance of the proposed controller has been quite remarkable, compared with that of conventional SMC.