• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.45-61
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• 2016

Structures with soft story irregularity have been seriously damaged in earthquakes. Therefore, the analysis of dynamic behavior of structures with soft story irregularity is of great value and relevance. In this study, a certain method will be used to discover the displacements and internal forces and to find out results about soft story irregularity. For this study, the multi-story frame-hinged shear wall system has been used as a model according to the continuous calculation system. The dynamic characteristics of the system have been obtained by analyzing the governing differential equation of the system. The dynamic characteristics have been calculated for a practical and quick analysis as indicated in tables. The suggested method is wholly based on manual calculation. A spectral analysis can be easily conducted with the help of Tables provided by this study. A sample has been solved and compared to the finite elements method to study the suitability of the method suggested at the end of this study.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.5
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• pp.621-632
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• 2018

Soft-story buildings have bottom stories much less rigid than the top stories and are susceptible to earthquake damage. Therefore, the seismic design specifications need strict design considerations in such cases. In this paper, a four-story building was investigated as a case study and the effects of X-braces elimination in its lower stories studied. In addition, the possibility of replacement of the X-braces in soft-stories with equivalent moment resisting frame inspected in two different phases. In first phase, the stiffness of X-braces and equivalent moment-resisting frames evaluated using classic equations. In final phase, diagonals removed from the lowest story to develop a soft-story and replaced with moment resisting frames. Then, the seismic stiffness variation of moment-resisting frame evaluated using nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. The results show that substitution of braced frames with an equivalent moment-resisting frame of the same stiffness increases story drift and reduces energy absorption capacity. However, it is enough to consider the needs of building codes, even using equivalent moment resisting frame instead of X-Braces, to avoid soft-story stiffness irregularity in seismic design of buildings. Besides, soft-story development in the second story may be more critical under strong ground excitations, because of interaction of adjacent stories.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.5
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• pp.405-418
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• 2023

This study focused on the effectiveness of seismic isolation technique in case of a reinforced concrete structure with soft story defined as the stiffness irregularity between adjacent stories. In this context, a seismically isolated 3-story reinforced concrete structure was analyzed by gradually increasing the first story height (3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 m). The seismic isolation system of the structure is assumed to be composed of lead rubber bearings (LRB). In the analyses, isolators were modeled by both deteriorating (temperature-dependent analyses) and non-deteriorating (bounding analyses) hysteretic representations. The deterioration in strength of isolator is due to temperature rise in the lead core during cyclic motion. The ground motion pairs used in bi-directional nonlinear dynamic analyses were selected and scaled according to codified procedures. In the analyses, different isolation periods (Tiso) and characteristic strength to weight ratios (Q/W) were considered in order to determine the sensitivity of structural response to the isolator properties. Response quantities under consideration are floor accelerations, and interstory drift ratios. Analyses results are compared for both hysteretic representations of LRBs. Results are also used to assess the significance of the ratio between the horizontal stiffnesses of soft story and isolation system. It is revealed that seismic isolation is a viable method to reduce structural damage in structures with soft story.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.141-161
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• 2015

A significant portion of residential areas of Turkey is located in active earthquake zones. In Turkey occurred major earthquakes in last twenty years, such as Erzincan (1992), Kocaeli and $D{\ddot{u}}zce$ (1999), $Bing{\ddot{o}}l$ (2003), Van (2011). These earthquakes have demonstrated that reinforced concrete (RC) buildings having horizontal and vertical irregularities are significantly damaged, which in turn most of them are collapsed. Architectural design and arrangement of load-bearing system have important effect on RC building since architectural design criteria in design process provide opportunity to make this type of buildings safer and economical under earthquake loads. This study aims to investigate comparatively the effects of weak story irregularity on earthquake behavior and rough construction costs of RC buildings by considering different soil-conditions given in the Turkish Earthquake Code. With this aim, Sta4-CAD program based on matrix displacement method is utilized. Considering that different story height and compressive strength of concrete, and infill walls or their locations are the variables, a set of structural models are developed to determine the effect of them on earthquake behavior and rough construction costs of RC buildings. In conclusion, some recommendations and results related to making RC buildings safer and more economical are presented by comparing results obtained from structural analyses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.791-818
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• 2013

The seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures with irregularities leading to soft first floor is studied using capacity assessment procedures. The soft first story effect is investigated for the cases: (i) slab-column connections without beams at the first floor, (ii) tall first story height and (iii) pilotis type building (open ground story). The effects of the first floor irregularity on the RC frame structure performance stages at global and local level (limit states) are investigated. Assessment based on the Capacity Spectrum Method (ATC-40) and on the Coefficient Method (FEMA 356) is also examined. Results in terms of failure modes, capacity curves, interstory drifts, ductility requirements and infills behaviour are presented. From the results it can be deduced that the global capacity of the structures is decreased due to the considered first floor morphology irregularities in comparison to the capacities of the regular structure. An increase of the demands for interstory drift is observed at the first floor level due to the considered irregularities while the open ground floor structure (pilotis type) led to even higher values of interstory drift demands at the first story. In the cases of tall first story and slab-column connections without beams soft-story mechanisms have also been observed at the first floor. Rotational criteria (EC8-part3) showed that the structure with slab-column connections without beams exhibited the most critical response.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.219-222
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• 2005

Many RC building structures of multiple uses constructed in Korea have the irregularities of torsion and soft story at bottom stories. A typical irregular building was selected as prototype and shaking table tests were performed to investigate the seismic performance of this building. The objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the experimental and analytical responses of this irregular building structure subjected to the earthquake excitation by using OpenSees(Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The results of analyses simulate well the behavior of the building having torsional irregularity and weak stories.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.517-539
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• 2011

This paper presents the seismic responses of a 1:5-scale five-story reinforced concrete building model, which represents a residential apartment building that has a high irregularity of weak story, soft story, and torsion simultaneously at the ground story. The model was subjected to a series of uni- and bi-directional earthquake simulation tests. Analysis of the test results leads to the following conclusions: (1) The model survived the table excitations simulating the design earthquake with the PGA of 0.187 g without any significant damages, though it was not designed against earthquakes; (2) The fundamental mode was the torsion mode. The second and third orthogonal translational modes acted independently while the torsion mode showed a strong correlation with the predominant translational mode; (3) After a significant excursion into inelastic behavior, this correlation disappeared and the maximum torsion and torsion deformation remained almost constant regardless of the intensity of the two orthogonal excitations; And, (4) the lateral resistance and stiffness of the critical columns and wall increased or decreased significantly with the large variation of acting axial forces caused by the high bi-directional overturning moments and rocking phenomena under the bi-directional excitations.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.407-422
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• 2017

Evaluating seismic performance of urban structures for future earthquakes is one of the key prerequisites of rehabilitation programs. Irregular structures, as a specific case, are more susceptible to sustain earthquake damage than regular structures. The study here is to identify damage states of vertically irregular structures using the well-recognized Park-Ang damage index. For doing this, a regular 3-story reinforced concrete (RC) structure is first designed based on ACI-318 code, and a peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.3 g. Some known vertical irregularities such as setback, short column and soft story are then applied to the regular structure. All the four structures are subjected to seven different earthquakes accelerations and different amplitudes which are then analyzed using nonlinear dynamic procedure. The damage indices of the structures are then accounted for using the pointed out damage index. The results show that the structure with soft story irregularity sustains more damage in all the earthquake records than the other structures. The least damage belongs the regular structure showing that different earthquake with different accelerations and amplitudes have no significant effect on the regular structures.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2022

In the case of columns in buildings with soft story, the concentration of stress due to the difference in stiffness can damage the columns. The irregularity of buildings including soft story requires retrofit because combined load of compression, bending, shear, and torsion acts on the structure. Concrete jacketing is advantageous in securing the strength and stiffness of existing members. However, the brittleness of concrete make it difficult to secure ductility to resist the large deformation, and the complicated construction process for integrity between the existing member and extended section reduces the constructability. In this study, two types of Steel Grid Reinforcement (SGR), which are Steel Wire Mesh (SWM) for integrity and Steel Fiber Non-Shrinkage Mortar (SFNM) for crack resistance are proposed. One reinforced concrete (RC) column with non-seismic details and two columns retrofitted with each different types of proposed method were manufactured. Seismic performance was analyzed for cyclic loading test in which a combined load of compression, bending, shear, and torsion was applied. As a result of the experiment, specimens retrofitted with proposed concrete jacketing method showed 862% of maximum load, 188% of maximum displacement and 1,324% of stiffness compared to non-retrofitted specimen.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.391-399
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• 2017

This study investigates the effects of soft story, short columns, heavy overhangs, pounding, and construction and workmanship quality parameters on seismic response of reinforced concrete buildings through nonlinear static and dynamic procedures. The accounted parameters are selected for their common use in rapid screening of RC buildings. The 4- and 7-story buildings designed according to pre-modern codes are used to reflect majority of the existing building stock. The relative penalty scores are employed in this study to evaluate relative importance of certain irregularities in the existing rapid seismic assessment procedures. Comparison of relative scores for the irregularities considered in this study show that the overall trend is similar. The relatively small differences may be accounted for regional construction practices. It is concluded that initial-phase seismic assessment procedures based on architectural features yield in somewhat similar results independent of their bases. However, the differences in the scores emphasize the proper selection of the method based on the regional structure characteristics.