• 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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.459-478
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• 2010

This paper contains detailed descriptions of a dynamic time-history modal analysis to calculate deflection, inter-storey drift and storey shear demand in single-storey and multi-storey buildings using an EXCEL spreadsheet. The developed spreadsheets can be used to obtain estimates of the dynamic response parameters with minimum input information, and is therefore ideal for supporting the conceptual design of tall building structures, or any other structures, in the early stages of the design process. No commercial packages, when customised, could compete with spreadsheets in terms of simplicity, portability, versatility and transparency. An innovative method for developing the stiffness matrix for the lateral load resistant elements in medium-rise and high-rise buildings is also introduced. The method involves minimal use of memory space and computational time, and yet allows for variations in the sectional properties of the lateral load resisting elements up the height of the building and the coupling of moment frames with structural walls by diaphragm action. Numerical examples are used throughout the paper to illustrate the development and use of the spreadsheet programs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.19-33
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• 2015

Open ground storey (OGS) buildings are characterized by the sudden reduction of stiffness in the ground storey with respect to the upper infilled storeys. During earthquakes, this vertical irregularity may result in accumulated damage in the ground storey members of OGS buildings without much damage in the upper storeys. Hence, the structural design of OGS buildings needs special attention. The present study suggests a modification of existing displacement-based design (DBD) procedure by proposing a new lateral load distribution. The increased demands of ground storey members of OGS buildings are estimated based on non-linear time history analysis results of four sets of bare and OGS frames having four to ten storey heights. The relationship between the increased demand and the relative stiffness of ground storey (with respect to upper storeys) is taken as the criterion for developing the expression for the design lateral load. It is also observed that under far-field earthquakes, there is a decrease in the ground storey drift of OGS frames as the height of the frame increases, whereas there is no such reduction when these frames are subjected to near-field earthquakes.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.221-232
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• 2024

As a supplemental energy dissipation device, friction dampers are widely employed to augment the behaviour of buildings under seismic forces. In the current work, a methodology for the design of the friction damping system of RC frame buildings is offered using performance-based plastic design (PBPD) method. Here 2% of maximum interstorey drift ratio for life safety (LS) level is taken into account as a target drift to estimate the design base shear. In this approach, the distribution of friction damper is determined based on the hysteretic energy demand of that storey. Two frames, five storey three bay (5S3B) and eight storey three bay (8S3B) RC frame building with and without friction damping systems are also taken up for the investigation. The suggested design approach is validated by the nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) procedure. Inter story drift ratio (ISDR) and storey displacement, which are the more closely related to structural damage during seismic excitation are evaluated. The results show that the friction damping system on a retrofitted RC frame building performs effectively under seismic excitations and that storey displacement and ISDR are within the limit at moderate and high seismic intensities.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.359-367
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• 2023

High-rise structures are considered as symbols of economic power and leadership. Developing countries like India are also emerging as centers for new high-rise buildings (HRB). As the land is expensive and scarce everywhere, construction of tall buildings becomes the best solution to resolve the problem. But, as building's height increases, its stiffness reduces making it more susceptible to vibrations due to wind and earthquake forces. Several systems are available to control vibrations or deflections; however, outrigger systems are considered to be the most effective systems in improving lateral stiffness and overall stability of HRB. In this paper, a 42-storey RCC HRB is analyzed to determine the optimum position of outriggers of different materials. The linear static analysis of the building is performed with and without the provision of virtual outriggers of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and pre-stressed concrete (PSC) at different storey levels by response spectrum method using finite element based Extended3D Analysis of building System (ETABS) software for determining responses viz. storey displacement, base shear and storey drift for individual models. The maximum allowable limit and percentage variations in earthquake responses are verified using the guidelines of Indian seismic codes. Results indicate that the outriggers contribute in significantly reducing the storey displacement and storey drift up to 28% and 20% respectively. Also, it is observed that the PSC outriggers are found to be more efficient over RCC outriggers. The optimum location of both types of outriggers is found to be at the mid height of building.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.589-611
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• 2016

This paper presents an analytical study aimed at evaluating the seismic performance of steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) retrofitted with different approaches. For this, 3, 6 and 12 storey MRFs having four equal bays of 5 m were selected as the case study models. The models were designed with lateral stiffness insufficient to satisfy code drift and hinge limitations in zones with high seismic hazard. Three different retrofit strategies including traditional diagonal bracing system and energy dissipation devices such as buckling restrained braces and viscoelastic dampers were used for seismic upgrading of the existing structures. In the nonlinear time history analysis, a set of ground motions representative of the design earthquake with 10% exceedance probability in fifty years was taken into consideration. Considering the local and global deformations, the results in terms of inter-storey drift index, global damage index, plastic hinge formations, base shear demand and roof drift time history were compared. It was observed that both buckling-restrained braces and viscoelastic dampers allowed for an efficient reduction in the demands of the upgraded frames as compared to traditional braces.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.365-375
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• 2023

Energy dissipation systems increase the energy dissipation capacity of buildings considerably. In this study, the effect of dampers on a typical 10-storey reinforced concrete structure with a ductile moment-resisting frame was investigated. In this context, 5 different models were created according to the calculation of the slip load and the positions of the dampers in the structure. Nonlinear time-history analyzes using 11 different earthquake acceleration records were performed on the models using the ETABS program. As a result of the analyses, storey displacements, energy dissipation ratios, drift ratios, storey accelerations, storey shears, and hysteretic curves of the dampers on the first and last storey and overturning moments are presented. In the study, it was determined that friction dampers increased the energy dissipation capacities of all models. In addition, it has been determined that positioning the dampers in the outer region of the structures and taking the base shear as a basis in the slip load calculation will be more effective.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.603-619
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• 2014

Soft storey buildings are characterised by having a storey that has a large amount of open space. This soft storey creates a major weak point during an earthquake. As the soft stories are typically associated with retail spaces and parking garages, they are often on the lower levels of tall building structures. Thus, when these stories collapse, the entire building can also collapse, causing serious structural damage that may render the structure completely unusable. The use of special soft storey is predominant in the tall building structures constructed by several local developers, making the issue important for local building structures. In this study, the effect of the incorporation of an isolator on the seismic behaviour of tall building structures is examined. The structures are subjected to earthquakes typical of the local city, and the isolator is incorporated with the appropriate isolator time period and damping ratio. A FEM-based computational relationship is proposed to increase the storey height so as to incorporate the isolator with the same time period and damping ratio for both a lead rubber bearing (LRB) and high-damping rubber bearing (HDRB). The study demonstrates that the values of the FEM-based structural design parameters are greatly reduced when the isolator is used. It is more beneficial to incorporate a LRB than a HDRB.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.317-335
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• 2016

Concentrically braced steel frames (CBFs) can be optimised during the seismic design process by using lateral loading distributions derived from the concept of uniform damage distribution. However, it is not known how such structures are affected by uncertainties. This study aims to quantify and manage the effects of structural and ground-motion uncertainty on the seismic performance of optimum and conventionally designed CBFs. Extensive nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed on 5, 10 and 15-storey frames to investigate the effects of storey shear-strength and damping ratio uncertainties by using the Monte Carlo simulation method. For typical uncertainties in conventional steel frames, optimum design frames always exhibit considerably less inter-storey drift and cumulative damage compared to frames designed based on IBC-2012. However, it is noted that optimum structures are in general more sensitive to the random variation of storey shear-strength. It is shown that up to 50% variation in damping ratio does not affect the seismic performance of the optimum design frames compared to their code-based counterparts. Finally, the results indicate that the ground-motion uncertainty can be efficiently managed by optimizing CBFs based on the average of a set of synthetic earthquakes representing a design spectrum. Compared to code-based design structures, CBFs designed with the proposed average patterns exhibit up to 54% less maximum inter-storey drift and 73% less cumulative damage under design earthquakes. It is concluded that the optimisation procedure presented is reliable and should improve the seismic performance of CBFs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.245-267
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• 2013

During preliminary design of a RC building located in a seismic area, having quick but reliable analytical measurement of interstory drifts and storey stiffnesses might be helpful in order to check the fulfillment of damage limit state and stiffness regularity in elevation required by seismic design codes. This paper presents two approximate methods, strongly interrelated each other, and addressed to achieve each of these two purposes for frame buildings. A brief description of some already existing methods addressed to the same aims is included to compare the main differences in terms of general approaches and assumptions. Both new approximate methods are then applied to 9 'ideal' frames and 2 'real' buildings designed according to the Italian seismic code. The results are compared with the 'exact' values obtained by the code-based standard calculation, performed via FEM models, showing a satisfactory range of accuracy. Compared with those by the other methods from literature, they indicate the proposed procedures lead to a better approximation of the objective structural parameters, especially for those buildings designed according to the modern 'capacity design' philosophy.