• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.4
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• pp.481-494
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• 2020

In this paper, a probability-based procedure to evaluate the performance of existing RC structures exposed to seismic and fire actions is presented. The procedure is demonstrated with reference to an existing old school building, located in Italy. The vulnerability assessment of the building highlights deficiencies under both static and seismic loads. Retrofit operations are designed to achieve the seismic safety. The idea of the work consists in assessing the performance of the existing and retrofitted building in terms of both the seismic and fire resistance. The seismic retrofit and fire resistance upgrading follow different paths, depending on the specific configuration of the building. A good seismic retrofit does not entail an improving of the fire resistance and vice versa. The goal of the current work is to study the variation of response due to the uncertainties considered in records/fire curves selection and to carry out the assessment of the studied RC structure by obtaining fragility curves under the effect of different records/temperature. The results show the fragility curves before and after retrofit operations and both in terms of seismic performance and fire resistance performance, measuring the percent improving for the different limit states.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.295-307
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• 2021

The gap provided between adjacent structures in the metropolitan cities is mostly narrow due to architectural and financial issues. Consequently, structural pounding occurs between adjacent structures during earthquakes. It causes damages, ranging from minor local to more severe ones, especially in the case of seismically isolated buildings, due to their higher displacements. However, due to the increased flexibility of isolated buildings, the problem could become more detrimental to such structures. The effect of the seismic pounding of moat walls on the response of buildings isolated by Triple Friction Pendulum Bearing (TFPB) is investigated in this paper. To this propose, two symmetric three-dimensional models, including single-story and five-story buildings, are modeled in Opensees. Nonlinear Time History Analyses (NTHA) are performed for seismic evaluation. Also, five different sizes with four different sets of friction coefficients are considered for base isolators to cover a whole range of base isolation systems with various geometry configurations and fundamental period. The results are investigated in terms of base shear, buildings' drift, and roof acceleration. Results indicated a profound effect of poundings against moat walls. In situations of potential pounding, in some cases, the influence of impact on seismic responses of multistory buildings was more remarkable.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.85-94
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• 2018

The paper focuses on the seismic responses of a hyperbolic cooling tower resting on soil foundation represented by the three-parameter Vlasov elastic soil model. The three-parameter soil model eliminates the necessity of field testing to determine soil parameters such as reaction modulus and shear parameter. These parameters are calculated using an iterative procedure depending on the soil surface vertical deformation profile in the model. The soil and tower system are modeled in SAP2000 structural analysis program using a computing tool coded in MATLAB. The tool provides a two-way data transfer between SAP2000 and MATLAB with the help of Open Application Programming Interface (OAPI) feature of SAP2000. The response spectrum analyses of the tower system with circular V-shaped supporting columns and annular raft foundation on elastic soil are conducted thanks to the coded tool. The shell and column forces and displacements are presented for different soil conditions and fixed raft base condition to investigate the effects of soil-structure interaction. Numerical results indicate that the flexibility of soil foundation leads to an increase in displacements but a decrease in shell membrane and column forces. Therefore, it can be stated that the consideration of soil-structure interaction in the seismic response analysis of the cooling tower system provides an economical design process.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1111-1123
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• 2016

The present study aims at proposing an analytical method for semi-active structural control by using block pulse functions. The performance of the resulting controlled system and the requirements of the control devices are highly dependent on the control algorithm employed. In control problems, it is important to devise an accurate analytical method with less computational expenses. Block pulse functions (BPFs) set proved to be the most fundamental and it enjoyed immense popularity in different applications in the area of numerical analysis in systems science and control. This work focused on the application of BPFs in the control algorithm concerning decrease the computational expenses. Variable orifice dampers (VODs) are one of the common semi-active devices that can be used to control the response of civil Structures during seismic loads. To prove the efficiency of the proposed method, numerical simulations for a 10-story shear building frame equipped with VODs are presented. The controlled response of the frame was compared with results obtained by controlling the frame by the classical clipped-optimal control method based on linear quadratic regulator theory. The simulation results of this investigation indicated the proposed method had an acceptable accuracy with minor computational expenses and it can be advantageous in reducing seismic responses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2014

A seismic evaluation is made of the response to horizontal ground shaking of cantilever retaining walls using the finite element model in three dimensional space whose verification is provided analytically through the modal analysis technique in case of the assumptions of fixed base, complete bonding behavior at the wall-soil interface, and elastic behavior of soil. Thanks to the versatility of the finite element model, the retained medium is then idealized as a uniform, elastoplastic stratum of constant thickness and semi-infinite extent in the horizontal direction considering debonding behavior at the interface in order to perform comprehensive soil-structure interaction (SSI) analyses. The parameters varied include the flexibility of the wall, the properties of the soil medium, and the characteristics of the ground motion. Two different finite element models corresponding with flexible and rigid wall configurations are studied for six different soil types under the effects of two different ground motions. The response quantities examined incorporate the lateral displacements of the wall relative to the moving base and the stresses in the wall in all directions. The results show that the wall flexibility and soil properties have a major effect on seismic behavior of cantilever retaining walls and should be considered in design criteria of cantilever walls. Furthermore, the results of the numerical investigations are expected to be useful for the better understanding and the optimization of seismic design of this particular type of retaining structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.461-481
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• 2016

The research described in this paper investigates the seismic behaviour of lightly reinforced concrete (RC) bearing sandwich panels, heavily conditioned by shear deformation. A numerical model has been prepared, within an open source finite element (FE) platform, to simulate the experimental response of this emerging structural system, whose squat-type geometry affects performance and failure mode. Calibration of this equivalent mechanical model, consisting of a group of regularly spaced vertical elements in combination with a layer of nonlinear springs, which represent the cyclic behaviour of concrete and steel, has been conducted by means of a series of pseudo-static cyclic tests performed on single full-scale prototypes with or without openings. Both cantilevered and fixed-end shear walls have been analyzed. After validation, this numerical procedure, including cyclic-related mechanisms, such as buckling and subsequent slippage of reinforcing re-bars, as well as concrete crushing at the base of the wall, has been used to assess the capacity of two- and three-dimensional low- to mid-rise box-type buildings and, hence, to estimate their strength reduction factors, on the basis of conventional pushover analyses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.669-680
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• 2016

In this paper, the underground box structure is discretized as a system with limited freedoms, and the explosion seismic wave is regarded as series of dynamic force acting on the lumped masses. Based on the local deformation theory, the elastic resistances of the soil are simplified as the effects of numbers of elastic chain-poles. Matrix force method is adopted to analyze the deformation of the structure in elastic half space. The structural dynamic equations are established and by solving these equations, the axial force, the moment and the displacement of the structure are all obtained. The influences of size ratio, the incident angle and the rock type on the dynamic response of the underground box structure are all investigated through a case study by using the proposed method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.487-499
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• 2019

Energy-based seismic design of structures has gradually become prominent in today's structural engineering investigations because of being more rational and reliable when it is compared to traditional force-based and displacement-based methods. Energy-based approaches have widely taken place in many previous studies and investigations and undoubtedly, they are going to play more important role in future seismic design codes, too. This paper aims to compute the maximum earthquake energy input to elastic single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems for selected real ground motion records. A data set containing 100 real ground motion records which have the same site soil profiles has been selected from Pacific Earthquake Research (PEER) database. Response time history (RTH) analyses have been conducted for elastic SDOF systems having a constant damping ratio and natural periods of 0.1 s to 3.0 s. Totally 3000 RTH analyses have been performed and the maximum mass normalized earthquake input energy values for all records have been computed. Previous researchers' approaches have been compared to the results of RTH analyses and an approach which considers the pseudo-spectral velocity with Arias Intensity has been proposed. Graphs of the maximum earthquake input energy versus the maximum pseudo-spectral velocity have been obtained. The results show that there is a good agreement between the maximum input energy demands of RTH analysis and the other approaches and the maximum earthquake input energy is a relatively stable response parameter to be used for further seismic design and evaluations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.47-64
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• 2023

Due to their efficient use of materials, hybrid reinforced concrete-steel (RCS) systems provide more practical and economic advantages than traditional steel and concrete moment frames. This study evaluated the seismic design factors and response modification factor 'R' of RCS composite moment frames composed of reinforced concrete (RC) columns and steel (S) beams. The current International Building Code (IBC) and ASCE/SEI 7-05 classify RCS systems as special moment frames and provide an R factor of 8 for these systems. In this study, seismic design parameters were initially quantified for this structural system using an R factor of 8 based on the global methodology provided in FEMA P695. For analyses, multi-story (3, 5, 10, and 15) and multi-span (3 and 5) archetypes were used to conduct nonlinear static pushover analysis and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) under near-field and far-field ground motions. The analyses were performed using the OpenSees software. The procedure was reiterated with a larger R factor of 9. Results of the performance evaluation of the investigated archetypes demonstrated that an R factor of 9 achieved the safety margin against collapse outlined by FEMA P695 and can be used for the design of RCS systems.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.231-236
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• 2023

The importance of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in the industry is increasing due to various loads, such as earthquakes and wind, having a significant impact on the performance of structures and equipment. Estimating responses is crucial for the effective health management of these assets. However, using numerous sensors in facilities and equipment for response estimation causes economic challenges. Additionally, it could require a response from locations where sensors cannot be attached. Digital twin technology has garnered significant attention in the industry to address these challenges. This paper constructs a digital twin system utilizing the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model to estimate responses in a pipe system under simultaneous seismic load and arbitrary loads. The performance of the data-driven digital twin system was verified through a comparative analysis of experimental data, demonstrating that the constructed digital twin system successfully estimated the responses.