• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.261-272
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• 2020

Recent severe earthquakes in and around the vital public places worldwide indicate the severe vulnerability of ground excitation to be assailed. Reducing the effect of seismic lateral load in structural design is an important conception. Essentially, seismic isolation is required to shield the superstructure in such a way that the building superstructure would not move when the ground is shaking. This study explores the effectiveness, design, and practical feasibility of base isolation systems to reduce seismic demands on buildings of varying elevations. Thus, static and dynamic analyses were conducted based on site-specific bi-directional earthquakes for base-isolated as well as fixed-based buildings. Remarkably, it was discovered that isolators used in low-rise to high-rise structures tend to significantly decrease the structural responses of seismic prone buildings. The higher allowable horizontal displacement induces structural flexibility and ensure good structural health of the building stories. Reinforcement from vertical and horizontal members can be reduced in significant amounts for BI buildings. Thus, although incorporating base isolators increases the initial outlay, it considerably diminishes the total structural cost.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.401-413
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• 2019

The concept of base isolation for equipment is well known. Its application in buildings and structures is rather challenging. Introduction of horizontal flexibility at the base helps in proper energy dissipation at the base level thus reducing the seismic demand of the super structure to be considered during design. The present study shows the results of a series of numerical simulation studies on seismic responses of secondary system (SS) housed in non-isolated and base-isolated primary structures (PS) including equipment-structure interactions. For this study the primary structure consists of two similar single bay three-store reinforced cement concrete (RCC) Frame building, one non-isolated with conventional foundation and another base isolated with Lead plug bearings (LPB) constructed at IIT Guwahati, while the secondary system is modeled as a steel frame. Time period of the base isolated building is higher than the fixed building. Due to the presence of isolator, Acceleration response is significantly reduced in both (X and Y) direction of Building. It have been found that when compared to fixed base building, the base isolated building gives better performance in high seismic prone areas.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.615-626
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• 2018

The seismic vulnerability of Turkey is relatively high due to its active fault systems with potential to create destructive earthquakes. Thus, reducing the loss of life and property, the number of the earthquake-prone buildings and their retrofit requirements are considerably significant key issues under the scenario earthquakes. The street survey based rapid assessment (SSRA) method can be considered as a powerful tool to determine the seismic vulnerability of building stock of an earthquake-prone city/state. In this study, the seismic vulnerability of the building stock of the Kirikkale province in Turkey is aimed to be estimated adopting the street survey based rapid assessment method (SSRA). For this purpose, central 2074 existing reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings were structurally surveyed with rapid visual site screening and disadvantages such as, the existence of short-column, soft-story, heavy overhangs, pounding effect and local soil conditions were determined for obtaining the structural performance score of each. The results obtained from the study demonstrate that 11-25% of the surveyed buildings in the study region needs to be investigated through more advanced assessment methods. Besides, higher correlation between increasing story number and unsafe/safe building ratio is obtained for the buildings with soft-story parameter than that for those with heavy overhangs and short-column parameters. The conformity of the results of the current study with the previous documented cases of rapid assessment efforts in the recent earthquakes in Turkey shows that the SSRA method for the Kirikkale province performed well, and thus this methodology can be reliably used for similar settlement areas.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.487-502
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• 2022

China is prone to earthquake disasters, and the higher seismic performance is required by many existing civil buildings. And seismic evaluation and retrofit are effective measures to mitigate seismic hazards. With the development of performance-based seismic design and diverse retrofit technology for buildings, advanced evaluation methods and retrofit strategies are in need. In this paper, we introduced the evolution of seismic performance objectives in China combined with performance-based seismic design. Accordingly, multi-phase evaluation methods and comprehensive seismic capacity assessment are introduced. For buildings with seismic deficiency or higher performance requirements, the retrofit technologies are categorized into three types: component strengthening, system optimization, and passive control. Both engineering property and social property for the retrofit methods are discussed. The traditional seismic retrofit methods usually are costly and disturbing, and for example in Beijing, seismic strengthening costs approx. 1000 RMB/m² (for 160 USD/m²), for hospital building even more expensive as 5000 RMB/m²(for 790 USD/m²). So cost-efficient and little disturbance methods are promising techniques. In the end, some opinions about the retrofit strategy and schemes category are shared and wish to discuss the situation and future of seismic retrofit in China.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.495-504
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• 2018

The possibility of earthquakes in vulnerable regions indicates that efficient technique is required for seismic protection of buildings. During the recent decades, the concept is moving towards the insertion of base isolation on seismic prone buildings. So, investigation of structural behavior is a burning topic for buildings to be isolated in base level by bearing device. This study deals with the incorporation of base isolation system and focuses the changes of structural responses for different types of Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB) isolators. A number of sixteen model buildings have been simulated selecting twelve types of bearing systems as well as conventional fixed-base (FB) scheme. The superstructures of the high-rise buildings are represented by finite element assemblage adopting multi-degree of freedoms. Static and dynamic analyses are carried out for FB and base isolated (BI) buildings. The dynamic analysis in finite element package has been performed by the nonlinear time history analysis (THA) based on the site-specific seismic excitation and compared employing eminent earthquakes. The influence of the model type and the alteration in superstructure behavior of the isolated buildings have been duly assessed. The results of the 3D multistory structures show that the lateral forces, displacement, inertia and story accelerations of the superstructure of the seismic prone buildings are significantly reduced due to bearing insertion. The nonlinear dynamic analysis shows 12 to 40% lessening in base shear when LRB is incorporated leading to substantial allowance of horizontal displacement. It is revealed that the LRB isolators might be potential options to diminish the respective floor accelerations, inertia, displacements and base shear whatever the condition coincides. The isolators with lower force intercept but higher isolation period is found to be better for decreasing base shear, floor acceleration and inertia force leading to reduction of structural and non-structural damage. However, LRB with lower isolator period seems to be more effective in dropping displacement at bearing interface aimed at reducing horizontal shift of building structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.503-526
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• 2012

Pounding between closely located adjacent buildings is a serious issue of dense cities in the earthquake prone areas. Seismic responses of adjacent buildings subjected to earthquake induced pounding are numerically studied in this paper. The adjacent buildings are modeled as the lumped mass shear buildings subjected to earthquake acceleration and the pounding forces are modeled as the Kelvin contact force model. The Kelvin model is activated when the separation gap is closed and the buildings pound together. Characteristics of the Kelvin model are extensively explored and a new procedure is proposed to determine its stiffness. The developed model is solved numerically and a SDOF pounding case as well as a MDOF pounding case of multistory adjacent buildings are elaborated and discussed. Effects of different separation gaps, building heights and earthquake excitations on the seismic responses of adjacent buildings are obtained. Results show that the seismic responses of adjacent buildings are affected negatively by the pounding. More stories pound together and pounding is more intense if the separation gap is smaller. When the height of buildings differs significantly, the taller building is almost unaffected while the shorter building is affected detrimentally. Finally, the buildings should be analyzed case by case considering the potential earthquake excitation in the area.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.471-493
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• 2013

This paper presents a framework for seismic damage evaluation for Algerian buildings adapted from HAZUS approach (Hazard-United States). Capacity and fragility curves were adapted to fit the Algerian building typologies (Reinforced Concrete structures, Confined or Non-Confined Masonry, etc). For prediction purposes, it aims to estimate the damages and potential losses that may be generated by a given earthquake in a prone area or country. Its efficiency is validated by comparing the estimated and observed damages in Boumerd$\grave{e}$s city, in the aftermath of Boumerd$\grave{e}$s earthquake (Algeria: May $21^{st}$ 2003; $M_w$ = 6.8). For this purpose, observed damages reported for almost 3,700 buildings are compared to the theoretical predictions obtained under two distinct modelling of the seismic hazard. In one hand, the site response spectrum is built according to real accelerometric records obtained during the main shock. In the other hand, the effective Algerian seismic code response spectrum (RPA 99) in use by the time of the earthquake is considered; it required the prior fitting of Boumerd$\grave{e}$s site PGA (Peak Ground Acceleration) provided by Ambraseys' attenuation relationship.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.791-818
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• 2015

RC buildings constitute the prevailing type of construction in earthquake-prone region like Kathmandu Valley. Most of these building constructions were based on conventional methods. In this context, the present paper studied the seismic behaviour of existing RC buildings in Kathmandu Valley. For this, four representative building structures with different design and construction, namely a building: (a) representing the non-engineered construction (RC1 and RC2) and (b) engineered construction (RC3 and RC4) has been selected for analysis. The dynamic properties of the case study building models are analyzed and the corresponding interaction with seismic action is studied by means of non-linear analyses. The structural response measures such as capacity curve, inter-storey drift and the effect of geometric non-linearities are evaluated for the two orthogonal directions. The effect of plan and vertical irregularity on the performance of the structures was studied by comparing the results of two engineered buildings. This was achieved through non-linear dynamic analysis with a synthetic earthquake subjected to X, Y and $45^{\circ}$ loading directions. The nature of the capacity curve represents the strong impact of the P-delta effect, leading to a reduction of the global lateral stiffness and reducing the strength of the structure. The non-engineered structures experience inter-storey drift demands higher than the engineered building models. Moreover, these buildings have very low lateral resistant, lesser the stiffness and limited ductility. Finally, a seismic safety assessment is performed based on the proposed drift limits. Result indicates that most of the existing buildings in Nepal exhibit inadequate seismic performance.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.213-228
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• 2013

Tall buildings have been traditionally designed to be symmetric rectangular, triangular or circular in plan, in order to avoid excessive seismic-induced torsional vibrations due to eccentricity, especially in seismic-prone regions like Japan. However, recent tall building design has been released from the spell of compulsory symmetric shape design, and free-style design is increasing. This is mainly due to architects' and structural designers' challenging demands for novel and unconventional expressions. Another important aspect is that rather complicated sectional shapes are basically good with regard to aerodynamic properties for crosswind excitations, which are a key issue in tall-building wind-resistant design. A series of wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulation have been carried out to determine aerodynamic forces and wind pressures acting on tall building models with various configurations: corner cut, setbacks, helical and so on. Dynamic wind-induced response analyses of these models have also been conducted. The results of these experiments have led to comprehensive understanding of the aerodynamic characteristics of tall buildings with various configurations.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2019

In this study, the seismic response is investigated by using a relatively low-rise building under torsion-prone conditions and three seismic loads with change of the location of the seismic isolation system. LRB (Lead Rubber Bearing) was used for the seismic isolator applied to the analytical model. Fixed model without seismic isolation system was set as a basic model and LB models using seismic isolation system were compared. The maximum story drift ratio and the maximum torsional angle were evaluated by using the position of the seismic layer as a variable. It was confirmed that the isolation device is effective for torsional control of planar irregular structures. Also, it was shown that the applicability of the mid-story seismic isolation system. Numerical analyses results presented that an isolator installed in the lower layer provided good control performance for the maximum story drift ratio and the maximum torsional angle simultaneously.