• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.5
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• pp.543-554
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• 2020

This paper aims to investigate the seismic performance of RC short columns and long columns with welding stirrups. Through the low-cyclic horizontal loading test of specimens, the seismic performance indexes such as failure modes, hysteretic curve, skeleton curve, ductility, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation and strength degradation were emphatically analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of shear span ratio, stirrups ratio and axial compression ratio on the performance of specimens were studied. The results showed that the seismic performance of the RC short columns with welding stirrups were basically the same as that of the RC short columns with traditional stirrups, but the seismic performance of RC long columns with welding stirrups was better than that of RC long columns with traditional stirrups. The seismic performance of RC short columns and long columns with welding stirrups could be improved by increasing stirrup ratio and shear span ratio and reducing axial pressure ratio. Moreover, the welding stirrup have the advantages of steel saving, industrialization and standardization production, convenient construction, and reducing time, which indicated that the welding stirrups could be applied in practical engineering.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.381-388
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• 2010

In this study, characteristics of the seismic response of the non-earthquake resistant reinforced concrete (RC) frame were identified. The test building is designed to withstand only gravity loads and not in compliance with modern seismic codes. Smooth bars were utilized for the reinforcement. Members are provided with minimal amount of stirrups to withstand low levels of shear forces and the core concrete is virtually not confined. Columns are slender and more flexible than beams, and beam-column connections were built without stirrups. Through the modeling of an example RC frame, the feasibility of the fiber elementbased 3D nonlinear analysis method was investigated. Since the torsion is governed by the fundamental mode shape of the structure under dynamic loading, pushover analysis cannot predict torsional response accurately. Hence, dynamic response history analysis is a more appropriate analysis method to estimate the response of an asymmetric building. The latter method was shown to be accurate in representing global responses by the comparison of the analytical and experimental results. Analytical models without rigid links provided a good estimation of reduced stiffness and strength of the test structure due to bond-slip, by forming plastic hinges closer to the column ends. However, the absence of a proper model to represent the bond-slip poased the limitations on the current inelastic analysis schemes for the seismic analysis of buildings especially for those with round steel reinforcements. Thus, development of the appropriate bond-slip model is in need to achieve more accurate analysis.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 2008

This study summarizes the results of a research project aimed at investigating the inelastic rotation capacity of beam-column joints of reinforced concrete special moment frames. All of the test specimens were classified as special moment frame (SMF), based on the design and detailing requirements of the ACI 318-02 provisions. The acceptance criteria, originally defined for steel moment frame connections in the 1997 edition of the AISC Seismic provisions, were used to evaluate the beam-column joints of the reinforced concrete moment frames. A total of 39 test specimens were examined in detail. Most of the joints that satisfy the design requirements for special moment frame structures were found to be ductile up to a plastic rotation of 3% without any major degradation in strength. This is mainly due to the stringent ACI 318-02 requirements for special moment frame joints. The presence of transverse beams increases confinement and shear resistance of joints, which results in better performance than for joints without transverse beams. All of the SMF connections that satisfy the ACI 318-02 limitations on joint shear stress turned out to meet the acceptance criteria.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.439-452
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• 1994

A method to optimize the cost of R/C frames and an algorithm of the optimal limit state design for R/C frames subjected to dynamic loads are presented. The modal superposition method was used to find the dynamic responses of the frames. Each member of R/C frame is made up of more than two elements and the stiffness matrix and consistent mass matrix of three d.o.f in the node of each element was used to include axial, shear and flexural effects. The objective function to be minimized formulated the cost of materials, steel and concrete, and optimised to satisfy the behaviors of R/C frame and each constraint imposed by the limit state requirements. Both objective function and each constraint are derived in terms of design variables which include the effective depth, beam width, compression and tension steel area, and column shear steel area. A few applications are presented which demonstrate the feasibility, the validity and efficiency of the algorithm for automated optimum design of R/C frames where dynamic behavior is to be considered.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.125-146
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• 2006

Stonecutters Bridge of Hong Kong is a cable-stayed bridge with two single-column pylons each 298 m high and an aerodynamic twin deck. The total length of the bridge is 1596 m with a main span of 1018 m. The top 118 m of the tower will comprise structural steel and concrete composite while the bottom part will be of reinforced concrete. The bridge deck at the central span will be of steel whilst the side spans will be of concrete. Stonecutters Bridge has adopted a twin-girder deck design with a wide clear separation of 14.3 m between the two longitudinal girders. Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the aerodynamic performance of twin-girder deck, the actual real life application of this type of deck is extremely limited. This therefore triggered the need for conducting the present studies, the main objective of which is to investigate the performance of Stonecutters Bridge against flutter at its in-service stage as well as during construction. Based on the flutter derivatives obtained from the 1:80 scale rigid section model experiment, flutter analysis was carried out using 3-D finite element based single parameter searching method developed by the second author of this paper. A total of 6 finite element models of the bridge covering the in-service stage as well as 5 construction stages were established. The dynamic characteristics of the bridge associated with these stages were computed and applied in the analyses. Apart from the critical wind speeds for the onset of flutter, the dominant modes of vibration participating in the flutter vibration were also identified. The results indicate that the bridge will be stable against flutter at its in-service stage as well as during construction at wind speeds much higher than the verification wind speed of 95 m/s (1-minute mean).

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.971-983
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• 2015

To promote greater acceptance and use of composite RCS systems, a two-bay two-story frame specimen with improved composite RCS joint details was tested in the laboratory under reversed cyclic loading. The test revealed superior seismic performance with stable load versus story drift response and excellent deformation capacity for an inter-story drift ratio up to 1/25. It was found that the failure process of the frame meets the strong-column weak-beam criterion. Furthermore, cracking inter-story drift ratio and ultimate inter-story drift ratio both satisfy the limitation prescribed by the design code. Additionally, inter-story drift ratios at yielding and peak load stage provide reference data for Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) approaches for composite RCS frames. An advantage over conventional reinforced concrete and steel moment frame systems is that the displacement ductility coefficient of the RCS frame system is much larger. To conclude, the test results prove that composite RCS frame systems perform satisfactorily under simulated earthquake action, which further validates the reliability of this innovative system. Based on the test result, some suggestions are presented for the design of composite RCS frame systems.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.279-294
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• 2020

Foundation of a building is damaged under service loads during construction. First visit shows that the foundation has been punched at the 6 column's foot region led to building rotation. Foundation shear punching occurring has made some stresses and deflections in construction. In this study, progressing of damage caused by foundation shear punching and inverse loading in order to resolve the building rotation has been evaluated in the foundation and frame of building by finite element modeling in ABAQUS software. The stress values of bars in punched regions of foundation has been deeply exceeded from steel yielding strength and experienced large displacement based on software's results. On the other hand, the values of created stresses in the frame are not too big to make serious damage. In the beams and columns of ground floor, some partial cracks has been occurred and in other floors, the values of stresses are in the elastic zone of materials. Finally, by inverse loading to the frame, the horizontal displacement of floors has been resolved and the values of stresses in frame has been significantly reduced.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.397-408
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• 2018

In a recent tragic fire incident, the Plasco Tower collapsed after an intense outburst of fire lasting for three and a half hours and claiming the lives of 16 firefighters and 6 civilians. This paper will present continuing collaborative work between Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Queen's University in Canada to model the progressive collapse of the tower. The fire started at the 10th floor and was observed to have travelled along the floor horizontally and through the staircase and windows vertically. Plasco Tower was steel structure and all the steel sections were fabricated by welding standard European channel or angle profiles and no fire protection was applied. Four internal columns carried the loads transferred by the primary beams, and box columns were constructed along the perimeter of the building as a braced tube for resisting seismic loading. OpenSees fibre-based sections and displacement-based beam-column elements are used to model the frames, while shell elements are used for the reinforced concrete floor slabs. The thermal properties and elevated temperature mechanical properties are as recommended in the Eurocodes. The results in this preliminarily analysis are based on rough estimations of the structure's configuration. The ongoing work looks at modeling the Plasco Tower based on the most accurate findings from reviewing many photographs and collected data.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.433-441
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• 2019

The aim of this research is reinforcing of concrete with variety of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) configurations and investigates the load capacity and ductility of these connections using an experimental investigation. Six scaled-down RC exterior joints were tested under moderately monotonic loads. The results show that, the shape of the FRP had a different effect on the joint capacity and the connection ductility coefficient. The greatest effect on increasing the ductility factor was seen in the sample where two reinforcement plates were used on both sides of the beam web (RCS5 sample). For the sample with the presence of FRP plates at the top and bottom of the beam (RCS3 sample), the ductility factor was reduced even the load capacity of this sample increased. Except for the RCS3 sample, the rest of the samples exhibited an increase in the ductility factor due to the FRP reinforcement.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.11-26
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• 1984

The aim of this study is to establish a synthetical optimal method that simultaneously analyze and design reinforced concrete flat slab-column structures involving multi-constraints and multi-design variables. The variables adopted in this mathematical models consist of design variables including sectional sizes and steel areas of frames, and analysis variable of the ratio of bending moment redistribution. The cost function is taken as the objective function in the formulation of optimal problems. A number of constraint equations, involving the ultimate limit state and the serviceability limit state, is derived in accordance with BSI CP110 requirements on the basis of limit state design theory. Both objective function and constraint equations derived from design variables and an analysis variable generally become high degree nonlinear problems. Using SLP as an analytical method of nonlinear optimal problems, an optimal algorithm is developed so as to analyze and design the structures considered in this study. The developed algorithm is directly applied to a few reinforced concrete flat slab-column structures to assure the validity of it and the possibility of optimization From the research it is found that the algorithm developed in this study is applicable to the optimization of reinforced concrete flat slab column structures and it converges to a optimal solution with 4 to 6 iterations regardless of initial variables. The result shows that an economical design can be possible when compared with conventional designs. It is also found that considering the ratio of bending moment redistribution as a variable is reasonable. It has a great effect on the composition of optimal sections and the economy of structures.