• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.287-301
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• 2004

Structural acceleration regulation is a means of managing structural response energy and enhancing the performance of civil structures undergoing large seismic events. A quadratic output regulator that minimizes a measure including the total structural acceleration energy is developed and tested on a realistic non-linear, semi-active structural control case study. Suites of large scaled earthquakes are used to statistically quantify the impact of this type of control in terms of changes in the statistical distribution of controlled structural response. This approach includes the impulses due to control inputs and is shown to be more effective than a typical displacement focused control approach, by providing equivalent or better performance in terms of displacement and hysteretic energy reductions, while also significantly reducing peak story accelerations and the associated damage and occupant injury. For earthquake engineers faced with the dilemma of balancing displacement and acceleration demands this control approach can significantly reduce that concern, reducing structural damage and improving occupant safety.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-58
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• 2009

Composite joints, considering the composite action of steel and concrete, exhibit, in general, high strength and high ductility. As a consequence, the use of this type of joint has been increasing in many countries, especially in those that are located in earthquake-prone regions. In this paper, a hysteretic model with pinching is presented that is able to reproduce the cyclic response of steel and composite joints. Secondly, the computer implementation and adaptation of the model in a spring element within the computer code Seismosoft is described. The model is subsequently calibrated using a series of experimental test results for composite joints subjected to cyclic loading. Finally, typical parameters for the various joint configurations are proposed.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.379-386
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• 2004

The optimal seismic retrofitting of NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) cabinet structures that contained class 1 relays were studies in this paper. During earthquake event, the failure modes of relays are not appeared in form of structural failure, but are appeared in form of contact chatter of relay. Therefore, the retrofitting of cabinet has to be aimed to the reducing of the structural response, such as acceleration. In this study, the optimal characteristic values of dampers were searched by μ-GA (micro-Genetic Algorithm) scheme for several installation patterns. To keep accuracy and efficiency of analysis, the structural models of cabinet were considered as a frame structure. The responses of structure were obtained in form of acceleration response spectra derived from the results of nonlinear time history analysis including damping nonlinearity. The fitness function of the optimum procedure was constructed based on the ratio of maximum spectral value and target GERS (General Equipment Ruggedness Spectra). The results show the good improvements of fitness fur adequate retrofitting pattern. Especially, the improvements of fitness were remarkable when the damping exponents are proper.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.709-724
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• 2016

This study investigates the optimum design parameters of a superelastic friction base isolator (S-FBI) system through a multi-objective genetic algorithm to improve the performance of isolated buildings against near-fault earthquakes. The S-FBI system consists of a flat steel-PTFE sliding bearing and superelastic NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) cables. Sliding bearing limits the transfer of shear across the isolation interface and provides damping from sliding friction. SMA cables provide restoring force capability to the isolation system together with additional damping characteristics. A three-story building is modeled with S-FBI isolation system. Multiple-objective numerical optimization that simultaneously minimizes isolation-level displacements and superstructure response is carried out with a genetic algorithm in order to optimize S-FBI system. Nonlinear time history analyses of the building with optimal S-FBI system are performed. A set of 20 near-fault ground motion records are used in numerical simulations. Results show that S-FBI system successfully control response of the buildings against near-fault earthquakes without sacrificing in isolation efficacy and producing large isolation-level deformations.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.25-32
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• 1998

Most recent seismic design codes include Response Modification Factor(RMF) for determining equivalent lateral forces. The RMF is used to reduce the linear elastic design spectrum to account for the energy dissipation capacity, overstrength and damping of the structure. In this study the RMF is defined as the ratio of the absolute maximum linear elastic base shear to the absolute maximum nonlinear base shear of a structure subject to the same earthquake accelerogram. This study investigates the effect of hysteretic model, as well as target ductility ratio and natural period on duct based RMF using nonlinear dynamic analyses of the SDOF systems. Special emphasis is given to the effects of the hysteretic characteristics such as strength deterioration and stiffness degradation. Results indicate that RMFs are dependent on ductility, period and hysteretic model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.377-394
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• 1998

Slit shear walls an reinforced concrete shear wall structures with purposely built-in vertical slits. If the slits are inserted with visco-elastic damping materials, the shear walls will become viscoelastic sandwich beams. When adequately designed, this kind of structures can be quite effective in resisting earthquake loads. Herein, a simple analysis method is developed for the evaluation of the stochastic responses of visco-elastic slit shear walls. In the proposed method, the stiffness and mass matrices are derived by using Rayleigh-Ritz method, and the responses of the structures are calculated by means of complex modal analysis. Apart from slit shear walls, this analysis method is also applicable to coupled shear walls and cantilevered sandwich beams. Numerical examples are presented and the results clearly show that the seismic responses of shear wall structures can be substantially reduced by incorporating vertical slits into the walls and inserting visco-elastic damping materials into the slits.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.685-710
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• 2013

Static torsional provisions employing equivalent lateral force method (ELF) require that the earthquake-induced lateral force at each story be applied at a distance equal to design eccentricity ($e_d$) from a reference resistance centre of the corresponding story. Such code torsional provisions, albeit not explicitly stated, are generally believed to be applicable to the regularly asymmetric buildings. Examined herein is the applicability of such code-torsional provisions to buildings with set-back using rigid as well as flexible diaphragm model. Response of a number of set-back systems computed through ELF with static torsional provisions is compared to that by response spectrum based procedure. Influence of infill wall with a range of opening is also investigated. Results of comprehensive parametric studies suggest that the ELF may, with rational engineering judgment, be used for practical purposes taking some care of the surroundings of the setback for stiff systems in particular.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-260
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• 2021

Torsional response of buildings is attributed to poor structural configurations in plan, which arises due to two factors - torsional eccentricity and torsional flexibility. Usually, building codes address effects due to the former. This study examines both of these effects. Buildings with torsional eccentricity (e.g., those with large eccentricity) and with torsional flexibility (those with torsional mode as a fundamental mode) demand large deformations of vertical elements resisting lateral loads, especially those along the building perimeter in plan. Lateral-torsional responses are studied of unsymmetrical buildings through elastic and inelastic analyses using idealised single-storey building models (with two degrees of freedom). Displacement demands on vertical elements distributed in plan are non-uniform and sensitive to characteristics of both structure and earthquake ground motion. Limits are proposed to mitigate lateral-torsional effects, which guides in proportioning vertical elements and restricts amplification of lateral displacement in them and to avoid torsional mode as the first mode. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses of multi-storey buildings are used to validate the limits proposed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.549-560
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• 2022

The optimum damping and tuning frequency ratio of the tuned mass damper-inerter (TMDI) for the base-isolated structure is obtained using the numerical searching technique under stationary white-noise and filtered white-noise earthquake excitation. The minimization of the isolated structure's mean-square relative displacement and absolute acceleration, as well as the maximization of the energy dissipation index, were chosen as the criteria for optimality. Using a curve-fitting technique, explicit formulae for TMDI damping and tuning frequency for white-noise excitation are then derived. The proposed empirical expressions for TMDI parameters are found to have a negligible error, making them useful for the effective design of base-isolated structures. The effectiveness of TMDI and its optimum parameters are influenced by the soil condition and isolation frequency, according to the comparison made of the optimized parameters and response with different soil profiles. The effectiveness of an optimally designed TMDI in controlling the displacement and acceleration response of the flexible isolated structure under real and pulse-type earthquakes is also observed and found to be increased as the inertance mass ratio increases.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2013

It was introduced a seismic mini-array that could monitor microseismicity efficiently and analyzed seismic data obtained from the mini-array that was operated from December 19, 2012 to January 9, 2013. The mini-array consisted of a six channel data logger, a central 3 components seismometer, and a tripartite array of vertical sensors centered around the 3 components seismometer as an equilateral triangle with about 100 m aperture. All seismometers that had the same instrument response were connected a 6 channel data logger, which was set to record seismograms at a sampling rate of 200 sps. During the three weeks of campaign, a total of 16 microearthquakes were detected. Using time differences of P wave arrivals from the vertical components, S-P time from 3 components seismometers, and back azimuth from the seismic array analysis, it was possible to locate the hypocenter of the microearthquake even with one seismic miniarray. The epicenters of two nearest microearthquakes were a quarry site located 1.3 km from the mini-array. The records of quarry blasting confirmed the our analysis.