• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2014

Servohydraulic shaking tables are being increasingly used in the field of earthquake engineering. They play a critical role in the advancement of the research state and remain one of the valuable tools for seismic testing. Recently, the National Earthquake Engineering Research Center, CGS, has acquired a 6.1m x 6.1 m shaking table system which has a six degree-of-freedom testing capability. The maximum specimen mass that can be tested on the shaking table is 60 t. This facility is designed specially for testing a complete civil engineering structures, substructures and structural elements up to collapse or ultimate limit states. It can also be used for qualification testing of industrial equipments. The current paper presents the main findings of the experimental shake-down characterization testing of the CGS shaking table. The test program carried out in this study included random white noise and harmonic tests. These tests were performed along each of the six degrees of freedom, three translations and three rotations. This investigation provides fundamental parameters that are required and essential while elaborating a realistic model of the CGS shaking table. Also presented in this paper, is the numerical model of the shaking table that was established and validated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.565-585
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• 2009

Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are gaining acceptance for use as reinforcing bars in concrete structures. The seismic behaviour of concrete frames reinforced with SMAs is being assessed in this study. Two eight-storey concrete frames, one of which is reinforced with regular steel and the other with SMAs at the plastic hinge regions of beams and regular steel elsewhere, are designed and analyzed using 10 different ground motion records. Both frames are located in the highly seismic region of Western Canada and are designed and detailed according to current seismic design standards. The validation of a finite element (FE) program that was conducted previously at the element level is extended to the structure level in this paper using the results of a shake table test of a three-storey moment resisting steel RC frame. The ten accelerograms that are chosen for analyzing the designed RC frames are scaled based on the spectral ordinate at the fundamental periods of the frames. The behaviour of both frames under scaled seismic excitations is compared in terms of maximum inter-storey drift, top-storey drift, inter-storey residual drift, and residual top-storey drift. The results show that SMA-RC frames are able to recover most of its post-yield deformation, even after a strong earthquake.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.495-505
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• 2009

Bridges form crucial links in the transportation network especially in high seismic risk regions. This research aims to provide a quantitative methodology for post-earthquake performance evaluation of the bridges. The experimental portion of the research involved shake table tests of a 4-span bridge which was subjected to progressively increasing amplitudes of seismic motions recorded from the Northridge earthquake. As part of this project, a high resolution long gauge fiber optic displacement sensor was developed for post-seismic evaluation of damage in the columns of the bridge. The nonlinear finite element model was developed using Opensees program to simulate the response of the bridge and the abutments to the seismic loads. The model was modified to predict the bent displacements of the bridge commensurate with the measured bent displacements obtained from experimental analysis results. Following seismic events, the tangential stiffness matrix of the whole structure is reduced due to reduction in structural strength. The nonlinear static push over analysis using current damaged stiffness matrix provides the longitudinal and transverse ultimate capacities of the bridge. Capacity loss in the transverse and longitudinal directions following the seismic events was correlated to the maximum displacements of the deck recorded during the events.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.467-476
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• 2018

The seismic vulnerability of skewed bridges had been observed in many past earthquakes. Researchers have found that the in-plane rotation of the girders was one of the main reasons for the vulnerability of these types of bridges. To date, not many experimental works have been done on this topic, especially those including pounding between adjacent structures. In this study, shake table tests were performed on a bridge-abutment system consisting of a straight, $30^{\circ}$, and $45^{\circ}$ bridge with and without considering pounding. Skewed bridges with the same fundamental frequency and those having the same girder mass as the straight bridge were studied. Under the loadings considered, skewed bridges with the same frequency as the straight tend to have smaller responses than those with the same mass. The average maximum bending moment developed in the piers of the $30^{\circ}$ bridge with the same mass as that of the straight when pounding was not considered was 1.6 times larger than when the frequencies were the same. It was also found that the NZTA recommendations for the seat lengths of skewed bridges could severely underestimate the relative displacements of these types of bridges in the transverse direction, especially when pounding occurs. In the worst case, the average transverse displacement of the $45^{\circ}$ bridge was about 2.6 times the longitudinal displacement of the straight, which was greatly over the limit suggested by the NZTA of 1.25 times.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.775-781
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• 2018

Shake table tests were conducted on scaled tunnel model to investigate the mechanism and effect of seismic loadings on horseshoe scaled tunnel model in ground fissure site. Key technical details of the experimental test were set up, including similarity relations, boundary conditions, sensor layout, modelling methods were presented. Synthetic waves and El Centro waves were adopted as the input earthquake waves. Results measured from hanging wall and foot wall were compared and analyzed. It is found that the seismic loadings increased the subsidence of hanging wall and lead to the appearance and propagation of cracks. The values of acceleration, earth pressure and strain were greater in the hanging wall than those in the foot wall. The tunnel exhibited the greatest earth pressure on right and left arches, however, the earth pressure on the crown of arch is the second largest and the inverted arch has the least earth pressure in the same tunnel section. Therefore, the effect of the hanging wall on the seismic performance of metro tunnel in earth fissure ground should be considered in the seismic design.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.496-502
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• 2015

In this study, seismic performance tests for 500 kV EBA are conducted through the IEEE Std. 693. It is hard to conduct both the static tests and dynamic tests for 500 kV EBA as IEEE Std. 693 because the size of specimen, 9 m in height, is too large to be examined. To do so, it can cause the unnecessary time and cost, and also the damage on the specimen. However, in this study, both static tests and dynamic tests are conducted in the same test field as IEEE Std. 693 to achieve more accurate and reliable test results. From the test results Taihan Electric Wire Co. can win contract for 500 kV extra-high voltage project in the U.S.A., therefore it can be evaluated that the tests are conducted successfully and the capability to estimate large electric power facilities are achieved as IEEE Std. 693.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.441-453
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• 2017

In Y-shaped eccentrically braced frame fabricated with high strength steel (Y-HSS-EBF), link uses conventional steel while other structural members use high strength steel. Cyclic test for a 1:2 length scaled one-bay and one-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen and shake table test for a 1:2 length scaled three-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen were carried out to research the seismic performance of Y-HSS-EBF. These include the failure mode, load-bearing capacity, ductility, energy dissipation capacity, dynamic properties, acceleration responses, displacement responses, and dynamic strain responses. The test results indicated that the one-bay and one-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen had good load-bearing capacity and ductility capacity. The three-story specimen cumulative structural damage and deformation increased, while its stiffness decreased. There was no plastic deformation observed in the braces, beams, or columns in the three-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen, and there was no danger of collapse during the seismic loads. The designed shear link dissipated the energy via shear deformation during the seismic loads. When the specimen was fractured, the maximum link plastic rotation angle was higher than 0.08 rad for the shear link in AISC341-10. The Y-HSS-EBF is a safe dual system with reliable hysteretic behaviors and seismic performance.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.445-468
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• 2014

The objective in this research is to determine the feasibility of using changes on the dynamic properties of a reinforced concrete (RC) structure to identify different levels of seismic induced damage. Damping ratio and natural frequency changes in a RC bridge column are analyzed using different signal processing techniques like Hilbert Transforms, Random Decrement and Wavelet Transforms. The data used in the analysis was recorded during a full-scale RC bridge column shake table test. The structure was subjected to ten earthquake excitations that induced different levels of inelastic demand on the column. In addition, low-intensity white noises were applied to the column in-between earthquakes. The results obtained show that the use of the damping ratio and natural frequency of vibration as damage indicators is arguable.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.267-283
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• 2011

Although earthquakes generate random cyclic lateral loading on structures, a quasi-static cyclic loading pattern with gradually increasing amplitude has been commonly used in the laboratory tests because of its relatively low cost and simplicity compared with pseudo-dynamic and shake table tests. The number, amplitudes and sequence of cycles must be chosen appropriately as important parameters of a quasi-static cyclic loading pattern in order to account for cumulative damage matter. This paper aims to reach a new cyclic displacement pattern to be used in quasi-static tests of well-confined, flexure-dominated reinforced concrete (RC) columns. The main parameters of the study are sectional dimensions, percentage of longitudinal reinforcement, axial force intensity and earthquake types, namely, far-fault and near-fault.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.73-82
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• 2010

Global and local behaviors of a lightly RC shear walls are investigated in this paper. For the sake of cyclic behaviors, nominal ground accelerations of 0.15 g, 0.40 g and 0.55 g which associated with natural periods of the walls are applied as listed in French CAMUS-2000 shake table test. Modified Kent & Park model, Drucker-Prager model for concrete material and $Giufr\acute{e}$-Menegotto-Pinto model for rebar are used for time history analyses using fiber/solids elements respectively. Alternatively, Eulerian beam analysis are discussed by imposing inelastic hinges at the most possible plastic hinge location using modified Takeda's trilinear model with stiffness reduction. Relative displacements, base shears, bending moments of 5-story shear building with 36-tons of mass under bi-lateral seismic excitation are extracted and compared with EC-8, PS-92 and KBC-09 provisions. Multi-scaled degradation process; material damage, elemental fracture and structural failure in turn is discussed in the view of numerical accuracy, efficiency and limitation depending on three different model-based analyses.