• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.217-243
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• 2016

The linear and nonlinear seismic responses of steel buildings with perimeter moment resisting frames and welded connections (WC) are estimated and compared with those of buildings with post-tensioned connections (PC). Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) structural representations of the buildings as well as global and local response parameters are considered. The seismic responses and structural damage of steel buildings with PC may be significantly smaller than those of the buildings with typical WC. The reasons for this are that the PC buildings dissipate more hysteretic energy and attract smaller inertia forces. The response reduction is larger for global than for local response parameters. The reduction may significantly vary from one structural representation to another. One of the main reasons for this is that the energy dissipation characteristics are quite different for the 2D and 3D models. In addition, in the case of the 3D models, the contribution of each horizontal component to the axial load on an specific column may be in phase each other during some intervals of time, but for some others they may be out of phase. It is not possible to observe this effect on the 2D structural formulation. The implication of this is that 3D structural representation should be used while estimating the effect of the PC on the structural response. Thus, steel frames with post-tensioned bolted connections are a viable option in high seismicity areas due to the fact that brittle failure is prevented and also because of their reduced response and self-centering capacity.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1-12
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• 2018

This study presents the seismic response characteristics of domestic cable-supported bridges due to 3 earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.1, 5.8, and 4.5 in Richter scale, which occurred around Gyeongju region in 2016. The seismic acceleration response signals, recorded by the seismic acceleration sensors at the free field near bridge and designated positions on bridge, are utilized to characterize the seismic responses of structural elements of cable-supported bridges. The dynamic behaviors of bridges are presented through Fourier transform of acceleration time history. Using the peak accelerations normalized by those at the free fields, amplification effects on the tops of the pylons are analyzed comparatively bridge by bridge. Using aforementioned analyses, the necessity of development on the creteria of alert levels is discussed for the earthquake disaster response of cable-supported bridges.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.447-470
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• 2014

Numerical simulation of the non-linear behavior of (RC) structural walls subjected to severe earthquake ground motions requires a reliable modeling approach that includes important material characteristics and behavioral response features. The objective of this paper is to optimize a simplified method for the assessment of the seismic response and damage development analyses of an RC structural wall building using macro-element model. The first stage of this study investigates effectiveness and ability of the macro-element model in predicting the flexural nonlinear response of the specimen based on previous experimental test results conducted in UCLA. The sensitivity of the predicted wall responses to changes in model parameters is also assessed. The macro-element model is next used to examine the dynamic behavior of the structural wall building-all the way from elastic behavior to global instability, by applying an approximate Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), based on Uncoupled Modal Response History Analysis (UMRHA), setting up nonlinear single degree of freedom systems. Finally, the identification of the global stiffness decrease as a function of a damage variable is carried out by means of this simplified methodology. Responses are compared at various locations on the structural wall by conducting static and dynamic pushover analyses for accurate estimation of seismic performance of the structure using macro-element model. Results obtained with the numerical model for rectangular wall cross sections compare favorably with experimental responses for flexural capacity, stiffness, and deformability. Overall, the model is qualified for safety assessment and design of earthquake resistant structures with structural walls.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.181-194
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• 2012

Chile is characterized by the largest seismicity in the world which produces strong earthquakes every $83{\pm}9years$ in the Central part of Chile, where it is located Santiago, the capital of Chile. The short interval between large earthquakes magnitude 8.5 has conditioned the Chilean seismic design practice to achieve almost operational performance level, despite the fact that the Chilean Code declares a scope of life safe performance level. Several Indexes have been widely used throughout the years in Chile to evaluate the structural characteristics of concrete buildings, with the intent to find a correlation between general structural conception and successful seismic performance. The Indexes presented are related only to global response of buildings under earthquake loads and not to the behavior or design of individual elements. A correlation between displacement demand and seismic structural damage is presented, using the index $H_o/T$ and the concrete compressive strain ${\varepsilon}_c$. Also the Chilean seismic design codes pre and post 2010 Maule earthquake are reviewed and the practice in seismic design vs Performance Based Design is presented. Performance Based Design procedures are not included in the Chilean seismic design code for buildings, nevertheless the earthquake experience has shown that the response of the Chilean buildings has been close to operational. This can be attributed to the fact that the drift of most engineered buildings designed in accordance with the Chilean practice falls below 0.5%. It is also known by experience that for frequent and even occasional earthquakes, buildings responded elastically and thus with "fully operational" performance. Taking the above into account, it can be said that, although the "basic objective" of the Chilean code is similar to the SEAOC VISION2000 criteria, the actual performance for normal buildings is closer to the "Essential/Hazardous objective".

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.525-535
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• 2019

The seismic performance of steel frames equipped with a particular type of bending dissipative braces (BDBs) having U elements, which has recently been introduced and tested by the authors, is investigated. For this purpose, two structural systems, i.e., simple and dual steel building frames, both with diagonal BDBs and different number of stories, are considered. After providing a design method of this new BDB, the detailed structural models are developed in the OpenSees platform to perform nonlinear dynamic analyses. Seismic performance factors like ductility, overstrength, response modification and deflection amplification factors are calculated using incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). In addition, to assess the damage probability of the structural models, their seismic fragilities are developed. The results show high energy dissipation capacity of both structural systems while the number of U elements needed for the bracing system of each story in the moment frames are less than those in the corresponding non-moment (simple) frames. The average response modification and deflection amplification factors for both structural schemes are obtained about 8.6 and 5.4, respectively, which are slightly larger than the corresponding recommended values of ASCE for the typical buckling-restrained braces (BRBs).

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.225-233
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• 2004

In this study, the seismic safety of containment building is assessed using response surface method. The structural analyses considering random variables such as load, resistance and analysis by ABAQUS are performed to obtain the structural response. The structural response is represented by polynomial of random variables, and the reliability analysis is performed by Level II method. Drucker-Prager failure criterion is applied as limit state function to take bi-axial stress states into account in the concrete. The lifetime probability of failure is evaluated by considering the lifetime of containment building, the annual occurrence rate of earthquake and the conditional probability of failure. Also the sensitivity analysis on the selection of sampling points is performed to obtain the steady results from response surface method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.8 no.4 s.29
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• pp.77-84
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• 1996

The structural members under seismic loading actually show inelastic behavior, so the inelastic responses should be calculated for the seismic design of structures or estimating the structural damage level. Although direct time history analysis may calculate the exact dynamic nonlinear responses for given ground motions, this approach involves a high computational cost and long period. Therefore, it should be developed the approach to estimate nonlinear responses for the practical purpose. The artificial earthquake accelerograms were generated to obtain the smoothed responses spectra, and the samples of generated accelerogram for each seismic event was used to examine average nonlinear response spectra. The stabilized response spectra for each earthquake event was used to evaluate the effects of various yield strength ratios, damping values and nonlinear hysteretic models. The approach, which can simply predict the nonlinear seismic responses of structures, was shown in this study.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.519-526
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• 2020

Non-stationary random seismic response and reliability of multi-degree of freedom hysteretic structure system are studied based on the cumulative damage failure mechanism. First, dynamic Eqs. of multi-degree of freedom hysteretic structure system under earthquake action are established. Secondly, the random seismic response of a multi-degree freedom hysteretic structure system is investigated by the combination of virtual excitation and precise integration. Finally, according to the damage state level of structural, the different damage state probability of high-rise frame structure is calculated based on the boundary value of the cumulative damage index in the seismic intensity earthquake area. The results show that under the same earthquake intensity and the same floor quality and stiffness, the lower the floor is, the greater the damage probability of the building structure is; if the structural floor stiffness changes abruptly, the weak layer will be formed, and the cumulative damage probability will be the largest, and the reliability index will be relatively small. Meanwhile, with the increase of fortification intensity, the reliability of three-level structure fortification is also significantly reduced. This method can solve the problem of non-stationary random seismic response and reliability of high-rise buildings, and it has high efficiency and practicability. It is instructive for structural performance design and estimating the age of the structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-282
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• 2023

This study investigates a rocking seismic isolation (RSI) system as a seismic protection measure against narrow-band ground-motions generated by earthquakes. Structures supported over RSIs are considered capable of reducing the lateral demands and damage of the main structural system through lifting and rocking. This lifting and rocking during earthquake activity is provided by free-standing columns. A single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system supported on a RSI system is subjected to narrow-band seismic motions and its response is compared to an analog system without RSI. The comparison is then extended to reinforced concrete linear frames with and without RSI; three-bay frames with 11 and 17 storeys are considered. It is found that the RSI systems significantly reduce acceleration and displacement demands in the main structural frames, more noticeably if the first structural mode dominates the response and for ratios of the predominant frequency of the ground motion to the predominant frequency of the main frame near one. It is also found that the RSI system is more effective in reducing lateral accelerations and displacements of the main structure when the aspect ratio, b/h, and size, R, of the free-standing columns decrease, although the rocking stability of the RSI system is also reduced.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.205-210
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• 2007

The existing capacity spectrum method (CSM) is based on the displacement based approach for seismic performance and evaluation. Currently, in the domestic and overseas standard concerning seismic design, the CSM to obtain capacity spectrum from capacity curve and demand spectrum from elastic response spectrum is presented. In the multistory building, collapse is affected more by drift than by displacement, but the existing CSM does not work for story drift. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved CSM to estimate story drift of structures through seismic performance and evaluation. It uses the ductility factor in the A-T domain to obtain constant-ductility response spectrum from earthquake response of inelastic system using the drift and capacity curve from capacity analysis of structure.