• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제84권4호
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• pp.479-488
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• 2022

Aiming to examine different failure patterns in multistory URM walls, two 1/3 scaled three-story and three-bay URM models were designed for the quasi-static loading tests to contrastively investigate the failure processes and characteristics of the multistory URM walls. Two different failure responses were observed with special attention paid to the behavior of spandrel-failure mode. By evaluating the seismic performance and deformation behavior of two test walls, it is demonstrated that spandrels, that haven't been properly designed in some codes, are of great significance in the failure of entire URM walls. Additionally, compared with pier-failure mode, spandrel-failure for multistory URM building is more reasonable and advisable as its effectively participation in energy dissipation and its efficiently improvement on seismic capacity and deformation in the overall structure. Furthermore, the experimental results are beneficial to improve seismic design and optimize reinforcement method of URM buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제58권2호
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• pp.379-395
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• 2016

A seismic strengthening method using Velcro is proposed to improve the seismic performance of columns in RC frame structures. The proposed method was evaluated experimentally using three fabricated RC specimens. Velcro was wrapped around the columns of the RC-frame specimen to prevent concrete spall falling. The reinforcing performance of the Velcro was determined from comparison of results on seismic performance (i.e., strength, displacement, failure mode, displacement ductility capacity and amount of dissipated energy). As the displacement of the reinforced specimens was increased, the amount of dissipated energy increased drastically, and the displacement-ductility-capacity of the reinforced specimens also increased. The final failure mode of RC frame structure was changed. As a result, it was concluded that the proposed seismic strengthening method using Velcro could be used to increase the displacement ductility of RC columns, and could be used to change the final failure mode of RC-frame structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.177-189
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• 2024

Accurately predicting the failure modes of reinforced concrete (RC) columns is essential for structural design and assessment. In this study, the challenges of imbalanced datasets and complex feature selection in machine learning (ML) methods were addressed through an optimized ML approach. By combining feature selection and oversampling techniques, the prediction of seismic failure modes in rectangular RC columns was improved. Two feature selection methods were used to identify six input parameters. To tackle class imbalance, the Borderline-SMOTE1 algorithm was employed, enhancing the learning capabilities of the models for minority classes. Eight ML algorithms were trained and fine-tuned using k-fold shuffle split cross-validation and grid search. The results showed that the artificial neural network model achieved 96.77% accuracy, while k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, and random forest models each achieved 95.16% accuracy. The balanced dataset led to significant improvements, particularly in predicting the flexure-shear failure mode, with accuracy increasing by 6%, recall by 8%, and F1 scores by 7%. The use of the Borderline-SMOTE1 algorithm significantly improved the recognition of samples at failure mode boundaries, enhancing the classification performance of models like k-nearest neighbor and decision tree, which are highly sensitive to data distribution and decision boundaries. This method effectively addressed class imbalance and selected relevant features without requiring complex simulations like traditional methods, proving applicable for discerning failure modes in various concrete members under seismic action.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제86권3호
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• pp.417-430
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• 2023

As the key part in the reinforced concrete column-steel beam (RCS) frame, the beam-column joints are usually subjected the axial force, shear force and bending moment under seismic actions. With the aim to study the seismic behavior of RCS joints with and without RC slab, the quasi-static cyclic tests results, including hysteretic curves, slab crack development, failure mode, strain distributions, etc. were discussed in detail. It is shown that the composite action between steel beam and RC slab can significantly enhance the initial stiffness and loading capacity, but lead to a changing of the failure mode from beam flexural failure to the joint shear failure. Based on the analysis of shear failure mechanism, the calculation formula accounting for the influence of RC slab was proposed to estimate shear strength of RCS joint. In addition, the finite element model (FEM) was developed by ABAQUS and a series of parametric analysis model with RC slab was conducted to investigate the influence of the face plates thickness, slab reinforcement diameter, beam web strength and inner concrete strength on the shear strength of joints. Finally, the proposed formula in this paper is verified by the experiment and FEM parametric analysis results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.443-454
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• 2017

When eccentrically braced steel frames (EBFs) are in the desired failure mode, links yield at each layer and column bases appear plastically hinged. Traditional design methods cannot accurately predict the inelastic behavior of structures owing to the use of capacity-based design theory. This paper proposes the use of performance-based seismic design (PBSD) method for planning eccentrically braced frames. PBSD can predict and control inelastic deformation of structures by target drift and failure mode. In buildings designed via this process, all links dissipate energy in the rare event of an earthquake, while other members remain in elastic state, and as the story drift is uniform along the structure height, weak layers will be avoided. In this condition, eccentrically braced frames may be more easily rehabilitated after the effects of an earthquake. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated through a sample case study of ten-story K-type EBFs and Y- type EBFs buildings, and is validated by pushover analysis and dynamic analysis. The ultimate state of frames designed by the proposed method will fail in the desired failure mode. That is, inelastic deformation of structure mainly occurs in links; each layer of links involved dissipates energy, and weak layers do not exist in the structure. The PBSD method can provide a reference for structural design of eccentrically braced steel frames.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제76권2호
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• pp.223-237
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• 2020

Transmission towers have come to represent one of the most important infrastructures in today's society, which may suffer severe earthquakes during their service lives. However, in the conventional seismic analyses of transmission towers, the towers are normally assumed to be fixed on the ground without considering the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the pile-supported transmission tower. This assumption may lead to inaccurate seismic performance estimations of transmission towers. In the present study, the seismic response and failure analyses of pile-supported transmission towers considering SSI are comprehensively performed based on the finite element method. Specifically, two detailed finite element (FE) models of the employed pile-supported transmission tower with and without consideration of SSI effects are established in ABAQUS analysis platform, in which SSI is simulated by the classical p-y approach. A simulation method is developed to stochastically synthesize the earthquake ground motions at different soil depths (i.e. depth-varying ground motions, DVGMs). The impacts of SSI on the dynamic characteristic, seismic response and failure modes are investigated and discussed by using the generated FE models and ground motions. Numerical results show that the vibration mode shapes of the pile-supported transmission towers with and without SSI are basically same; however, SSI can significantly affect the dynamic characteristic by altering the vibration frequencies of different modes. Neglecting the SSI and the variability of earthquake motions at different depths may cause an underestimate and overestimate on the seismic responses, respectively. Moreover, the seismic failure mode of pile-supported transmission towers is also significantly impacted by the SSI and DVGMs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.289-304
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• 2024

The seismic performance of traditional steel frame-shear wall structures was significantly improved by the application of self-centering steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) wall-panel structures in the steel frames. This novel resilience functionality can rapidly restore the structure after an earthquake. The presented steel frame with steel-reinforced concrete self-centering wall-panel structures (SF-SCW) was validated, indicating its excellent seismic performance. The seismic design method based on bear capacity cannot correctly predict the elastic-plastic performance of the structure, especially certain weak floors that might be caused by a major fracture. A four-level seismic performance index, including intact function, continued utilization, life safety, and near-collapse, was established to achieve the ideal failure mode. The seismic design method, based on structural displacement, was proposed by considering performance objectives of the different seismic action levels. The pushover analysis of a six-floor SF-SCW structure was carried out under the proposed design method and the results showed that this six-floor structure could achieve the predicted failure mode.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.329-348
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• 2019

The main objective of this experimental research was to investigate the Seismic performance of reinforced concrete frames infilled with perforated clay brick masonry wall of a type commonly used in Algeria. Four one story-one bay reinforced concrete infilled frames of half scale of an existing building were tested at the National Earthquake Engineering Research Center Laboratory, CGS, Algeria. The experiments were carried out under a combined constant vertical and reversed cyclic lateral loading simulating seismic action. This experimental program was performed in order to evaluate the effect and the contribution of the infill masonry wall on the lateral stiffness, strength, ductility and failure mode of the reinforced concrete frames. Numerical models were developed and calibrated using the experimental results to match the load-drift envelope curve of the considered specimens. These models were used as a bench mark to assess the effect of normalized axial load on the seismic performance of the RC frames with and without masonry panels. The main experimental and analytical results are presented in this paper.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제78권1호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2021

Inelastic static pushover analysis has been used in the academic-research widely for seismic analysis of structures. Nowadays, the variety pushover analysis methods have been developed, including Modal pushover, Adaptive pushover, and Cyclic pushover, in which some weaknesses of the conventional pushover method have been rectified. In the conventional pushover analysis method, the effects of cumulative growth of cracks are not considered on the reduction of strength and stiffness of RC members that occur during earthquake or cyclic loading. Therefore, the Cyclic Pushover Analysis Method (CPA) has been proposed. This method is a powerful technique for seismic evaluation of regular reinforced concrete buildings in which the first mode of them is dominant. Since the bridges have different structures than buildings, their results cannot necessarily be attributed to bridges, and more research is needed. In this study, a cyclic pushover analysis with four loading protocols (suggested by valid references) by the Opensees software was conducted for seismic evaluation of two regular reinforce concrete bridges. The modeling method was validated with the comparison of the analytical and experimental results under both cyclic and dynamic loading. The failure mode of the piers was considered in two-mode of flexural failure and also a flexural-shear failure. Along with the cyclic analysis, conventional analysis has been studied. Also, the nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method has been used to examine and compare the results of pushover analyses. The time history of 20 far-field earthquake records was used to conduct IDA. After analysis, the base shear vs. displacement in the middle of the deck was drawn. The obtained results show that the cyclic pushover analysis method is able to evaluate an accurate seismic behavior of the reinforced concrete piers of the bridges. Based on the results, the cyclic pushover has proper convergence with IDA. Its accuracy was much higher than the conventional pushover, in which the bridge piers failed in flexural-shear mode. But, in the flexural failure mode, the results of each two pushover methods were close approximately. Besides, the cyclic pushover method with ACI loading protocol, and ATC-24 loading protocol, can provided more accurate results for evaluating the seismic investigation of the bridges, specially if the bridge piers are failed in flexural-shear failure mode.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.175-189
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• 2024

Aiming at studying the plastic hinge (PH) evolution regularities and failure mode of rocking wall moment frame (RWMF) structure in earthquakes, the whole-working history analysis of seismic performance state of RWMF structure based on co-operation performance and PH evolution was carried out. Building upon the theoretical analysis of the elastic internal forces and deformations of RWMF structures, nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) methods were employed to perform both Pushover analysis and seismic response time history analysis under different seismic coefficients (δ). The relationships among PH occurrence ratios (R_ph), inter-story drifts and δ were established. Based on the plotted curve of the seismic performance states, evaluation limits for the R_ph and inter-story drifts were provided for different performance states of RWMF structures. The results indicate that the R_ph of RWMF structures exhibits a nonlinear evolution trend of "fast at first, then slow" with the increasing of δ. The general pattern is characterized by the initial development of beam hinges in the middle stories, followed by the development towards the top and bottom stories until the beam hinges are fully formed. Subsequently, the development of column hinges shifts from the bottom and top stories towards the middle stories of the structure, ultimately leading to the loss of seismic lateral capacity with a failure mode of partial beam yield, demonstrating a global yielding pattern. Moreover, the limits for the R_ph and inter-story drifts effectively evaluate the five different performance states of RWMF structures.