• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.549-561
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• 2012

Many building foundations are embedded, however it is not easy to compact the backfill around the foundation especially for the deeply embedded ones. The soil condition around the embedded foundation may affect the seismic response of a building due to the weak contact between the soil and the foundation. In this paper, the response accelerations in the short-period range and at the period of 1 second (in the long-period range) for a seismic design spectrum specified in the IBC design code were compared considering perfect and poor backfills to investigate the effect of backfill compaction around the embedded foundation. An in-house finite-element software (P3DASS) which has the capability of horizontal pseudo-3D seismic analysis with linear soil layers was used to perform the seismic analyses of the structure-soil system with an embedded foundation. Seismic analyses were carried out with 7 bedrock earthquake records provided by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), scaling the peak ground accelerations to 0.1 g. The results indicate that the poor backfill is not detrimental to the seismic response of a building, if the foundation is not embedded deeply in the soft soil. However, it is necessary to perform the seismic analysis for the structure-soil system embedded deeply in the soft soil to check the seismic resonance due to the soft soil layer beneath the foundation, and to compact the backfill as well as possible.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.607-627
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• 2013

The application of shape memory alloys (SMAs) to the seismic response reduction of civil engineering structures has attracted growing interest due to their self-centering feature and excellent fatigue performance. The loading rate dependence of SMAs raises a concern in the seismic analysis of SMA-based devices. However, the implementation of micromechanics-based strain-rate-dependent constitutive models in structural analysis software is rather complicated and computationally demanding. This paper investigates the feasibility of replacing complex rate-dependent models with rate-independent constitutive models for superelastic SMA elements in seismic time-history analysis. Three uniaxial constitutive models for superelastic SMAs, including one rate-dependent thermomechanical model and two rate-independent phenomenological models, are considered in this comparative study. The pros and cons of the three nonlinear constitutive models are also discussed. A parametric study of single-degree-of-freedom systems with different initial periods and strength reduction factors is conducted to examine the effect of the three constitutive models on seismic simulations. Additionally, nonlinear time-history analyses of a three-story prototype steel frame building with special SMA-based damping braces are performed. Two suites of seismic records that correspond to frequent and design basis earthquakes are used as base excitations in the seismic analyses of steel-braced frames. The results of this study show that the rate-independent constitutive models, with their parameters properly tuned to dynamic test data, are able to predict the seismic responses of structures with SMA-based seismic response modification devices.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1607-1616
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• 2018

Quantitatively modeling and propagating all sources of uncertainty stand at the core of seismic fragility assessment of structures. This paper investigates the effects of various sources of uncertainty on seismic responses and seismic fragility estimates of single-layer reticulated domes. Sensitivity analyses are performed to examine the sensitivity of typical seismic responses to uncertainties in structural modeling parameters, and the results suggest that the variability in structural damping, yielding strength, steel ultimate strain, dead load and snow load has significant effects on the seismic responses, and these five parameters should be taken as random variables in the seismic fragility assessment. Based on this, fragility estimates and fragility curves incorporating different levels of uncertainty are obtained on the basis of the results of incremental dynamic analyses on the corresponding set of 40 sample models generated by Latin Hypercube Sampling method. The comparisons of these fragility curves illustrate that, the inclusion of only ground motion uncertainty is inappropriate and inadequate, and the appropriate way is incorporating the variability in the five identified structural modeling parameters as well into the seismic fragility assessment of single-layer reticulated domes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.469-479
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• 2023

A probabilistic seismic damage analysis is an essential procedure to identify seismically vulnerable structures, prioritize the seismic retrofit, and ultimately minimize the overall seismic risk. To assess the seismic risk of multiple structures within a region, a large number of nonlinear time-history structural analyses must be conducted and studied. As a result, each assessment requires high computing resources. To overcome this limitation, we explore a deep learning-based metamodel to enable the prediction of the mean and the standard deviation of the seismic damage distribution of track-on steel-plate girder railway bridges in Korea considering the geometric variation. For machine learning training, nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses are performed to generate 800 high-fidelity datasets on the seismic response. Through intensive trial and error, the study is concentrated on developing an optimal machine learning architecture with the pre-identified variables of the physical configuration of the bridge. Additionally, the prediction performance of the proposed method is compared with a previous, well-defined, response surface model. Finally, the statistical testing results indicate that the overall performance of the deep-learning model is improved compared to the response surface model, as its errors are reduced by as much as 61%. In conclusion, the model proposed in this study can be effectively deployed for the seismic fragility and risk assessment of a region with a large number of structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.557-570
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• 2017

In this study, the seismic performance levels of four bridges are determined using finite element modeling based on ambient vibration testing. The study includes finite element modeling, analytical modal analyses, ambient vibration testing and earthquake analyses of the bridges. For the purpose, four prestressed precast I beam bridges that were constructed for the Ankara-Sivas high speed railway line are selected for analytical and experimental studies. In the study, firstly a literature review related to the dynamic behavior of bridges especially precast beam bridges is given and then the formulation part related to ambient vibration testing and structural performance according to Turkish Seismic Code (2007) is presented. Next, 3D finite element models of the bridge are described and modeled using LARSA 4D software, and analytical dynamic characteristics are obtained. Then ambient vibration testing conducted on the bridges under natural excitations and experimental natural frequencies are estimated. Lastly, time history analyses of the bridges under the 1999 Kocaeli, 1992 Erzincan, and 1999 Duzce Earthquakes are performed and seismic performance levels according to TSC2007 are determined. The results show that the damage on the bridges is all under the minimum damage limit which is in the minimum damage region under all three earthquakes.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.83-90
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• 2002

There are few earthquake records in Korea and the Japanese or American representative earthquake records have been generally used in the seismic design. In this study, some earthquake records which the range of earthquake magnitudes varies from 5.3 to 7.9 were collected and analyzed to assess which record can rationally reflect Korean seismic characteristics. In this assessment, each seismic energy and acceleration spectrum were analyzed with the unified maximum ground acceleration. Several numerical analyses on Korean representative caisson structures were also carried out to compare each dynamic displacement. In these numerical analyses, soil conditions and the dimension of structure such as height and width were changed. Through this assessment, it is found that the compatible earthquake magnitude in Korea is lower than 7. From the result of numerical analyses, it is shown that horizontal dynamic displacements corresponding to earthquake magnitudes over than 7 are quite larger than those below earthquake magnitude 7. Based on this study, it is necessary that Korean seismic design guideline will refer earthquake magnitude criteria for the construction of the economical aseismic structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-82
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• 2014

The heritage value of the mixed wood-masonry 18th century Pombalino buildings of downtown Lisbon is recognized both nationally and internationally. The present paper focuses on the seismic assessment of global response and retrofitting of a typical Pombalino building by nonlinear static analyses, performed by the research software Tremuri, which is able to model 3D configurations. The structure is modelled using nonlinear beams for masonry panels, while in case of the internal walls (frontal walls) an original formulation has been developed in order to take into account their specific seismic behaviour. Floors are modelled as orthotropic membrane finite elements: this feature allows to simulate the presence of both flexible and rigid diaphragms, being the first ones more representative of the original state while the second ones of retrofitted configurations. Seismic assessment has been evaluated by applying nonlinear static procedure and comparing the performance of different configurations (by considering various retrofitting strategies). Finally, assuming a lognormal cumulative distribution, fragility curves are obtained to be representative of Pombalino buildings: the most important application of such curves is for seismic risk and loss estimation analyses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.6
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• pp.677-689
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• 2018

Residual deformation is a crucial index that should be paid special attention in the performance-based seismic analyses of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Owing to their superior re-centering capacity under earthquake excitations, the post-tensioned self-centering (PTSC) RC frames have been proposed and developed for engineering application during the past few decades. This paper presents a comprehensive assessment on the seismic fragility of a PTSC frame by simultaneously considering maximum and residual deformations. Bivariate limit states are defined according to the pushover analyses for maximum deformations and empirical judgments for residual deformations. Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDA) are conducted to derive the probability of exceeding predefined limit states at specific ground motion intensities. Seismic performance of the PTSC frame is compared with that of a conventional monolithic RC frame. The results show that, taking a synthetical consideration of maximum and residual deformations, the PTSC frame surpasses the monolithic frame in resisting most damage states, but is more vulnerable to ground motions with large intensities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.1
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• pp.51-70
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• 2024

Poorly designed reinforced concrete (RC) columns of actual moment-resisting frame (MRF) buildings can undergo Axial Compression Ratios (ACR) so high as their demand exceeds their capacity, even for serviceability gravity load combinations, this lack commonly leads to insufficient seismic strength. Nonetheless, many seismic design codes do not specify limits for ACR. The main contribution of this research is to investigate the need to limit the ACR in seismic design. For this purpose, three prototype 6 and 11-story RC MRF buildings are analyzed in this paper, these buildings have columns undergoing excessive ACR, according to the limits prescribed by standards. To better that situation, three types of alterations are performed: retrofitting the abovementioned overloaded columns by steel jacketing, increasing the concrete strength, and reducing the number of stories. Several finite element analyses are conducted using the well-known software SAP2000 and the results are used for further calculations. Code-type and pushover analyses are performed on the original and retrofitted buildings, the suitability of the other modified buildings is checked by code-type analyses only. The obtained results suggest that ACR is a rather reliable indicator of the final building strength, hence, apparently, limiting the ACR in the standards (for early stages of design) might avoid unnecessary verifications.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.454-461
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• 2001

Dynamic responses of a multi-span simply supported bridge are examined under seismic excitations considering damage of bearings. An idealized mechanical model which can consider components such as pounding, friction at the supports, abutment-soil interaction, rotational and translational motions of foundations, and the nonlinear pier motions, is developed to analyze the effects due to damage of bearings. It is assumed that the bearing's response after failure can be expressed with a sliding model with a friction coefficient between the superstructure and the pier top. It is found that the global seismic behaviors are significantly influenced by the damage of bearings and the damage of bearings may lead to unseating failure at unpredicted supports. Therefore, It can be concluded that detailed seismic response analyses of bridge systems considering damage of bearings is required for the purpose of the seismic safety evaluation.