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CONTENTS
Volume 12, Number 1, January 2017
 


Abstract
Historical earthquakes have shown that successive seismic events may occur in regions of high seismicity. Such a sequence of earthquakes has the potential to increase the damage level of the structures, since any rehabilitation between the successive ground motions is practically impossible due to lack of time. Few studies about this issue can be found in literature, most of which focused their attention on the seismic response of SDOF systems or planar frame structures. The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of seismic sequences on the damage level of 3D multistorey R/C buildings with various structural systems. For the purposes of the above investigation a comprehensive assessment is conducted using three double-symmetric and three asymmetric in plan medium-rise R/C buildings, which are designed on the basis of the current seismic codes. The buildings are analyzed by nonlinear time response analysis using 80 bidirectional seismic sequences. In order to account for the variable orientation of the seismic motion, the two horizontal accelerograms of each earthquake record are applied along horizontal orthogonal axes forming 12 different angles with the structural axes. The assessment of the results revealed that successive ground motions can lead to significant increase of the structural damage compared to the damage caused by the corresponding single seismic events. Furthermore, the incident angle can radically alter the successive earthquake phenomenon depending on the special characteristics of the structure, the number of the sequential earthquakes, as well as the distance of the record from the fault.

Key Words
repeated earthquakes; seismic sequences; reinforced concrete buildings; seismic incident angle; seismic damage; bidirectional excitation

Address
Konstantinos Kostinakis: Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Aristotle University campus, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

Konstantinos Morfidis: Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO-ITSAK), Dasylliou Str., 55535, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract
Recent seismic events occurred in Italy (Emilia-Romagna 2012, Abruzzo 2009) and worldwide (New Zealand 2010 and 2011) highlighted some of the weaknesses of precast concrete industrial buildings, especially those related to the connecting systems traditionally employed to fasten the cladding panels to the internal framing. In fact, one of the most commons fails it is possible to observe in such structural typologies is related to the out-of-plane collapse of the external walls due to the unsatisfactory behaviour of the connectors used to join the panels to the perimeter beams. In this work, the strengthening of a traditional industrial building, assumed as a case study, made by precast reinforced concrete is proposed by the adoption of a dual system allowing the reinforcement of the structure by acting both internally; by pendular columns and, externally, on the walls. In particular, traditional connections at the top of the walls are substituted by devices able to work as a slider with vertical axis while, the bottom of the walls is equipped with two or more hysteretic dampers working on the uplift of the cladding panels occurring under seismic actions. By means of this approach, the structure is stiffened; obtaining a reduction of the lateral drifts under serviceability limit states. In addition, its seismic behaviour is improved due to the additional source of energy dissipation represented by the dampers located at the base of the walls. The effectiveness of the suggested retrofitting approach has been checked by comparing the performance of the retrofitted structure with those of the structure unreinforced by means of both pushover and Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDA) in terms of behaviour factor, assumed as a measure of the ductility capacity of the structure.

Key Words
precast concrete structures; reinforced concrete; industrial buildings; dampers; seismic analysis

Address
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano (SA), 84084, Italy

Abstract
Composite steel plate deep beam (CDB) is proposed as a lateral resisting member, which is constructed by steel plate and reinforced concrete (RC) panel, and it is connected with building frame through high-strength bolts. To investigate the seismic performance of the CDB, tests of two 1/3 scaled specimens with different length-to-height ratio were carried out under cyclic loads. The failure modes, load-carrying capacity, hysteretic behavior, ductility and energy dissipation were obtained and analyzed. In addition, the nonlinear finite element (FE) models of the specimens were established and verified by the test results. Besides, parametric analyses were performed to study the effect of length-to-height ratio, height-to-thickness ratio, material type and arrangement of RC panel. The experimental and numerical results showed that: the CDBs lost their load-carrying capacity because of the large out-of plane deformation and yield of the tension field formed on the steel plate. By increasing the length-to-height ratio of steel plate, the load-carrying capacity, elastic stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the specimens were significantly enhanced. The ultimate loading capacity increased with increasing the length-to-height ratio of steel plate and yield strength of steel plate; and such capacity increased with decreasing of height-to-thickness ratio of steel plate and gap. Finally, a unified formula is proposed to calculate their ultimate loading capacity, and fitting formula on such indexes are provided for designation of the CDB.

Key Words
composite steel plate deep beam; cyclic test; seismic performance; finite element method

Address
Yi Hu, Liqiang Jiang and Hong Zheng: School of Civil Engineering, Chang&aqute;an University, Xi&aqute;an 710061, China

Liqiang Jiang: School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210018, China

Abstract
The current paper investigates the effect of the seismic pounding of neighboring buildings on the response of structures isolated by Triple Friction Pendulum Bearing (TFPB). To this end, a symmetric three-dimensional single story building is modeled for analysis with two specified levels of top deck and base deck, to capture the seismic response of the base isolators and building´s roof. Linear elastic springs with different level of gaps are employed to calculate the impact between the buildings. Nonlinear Dynamic Time History Analyses (NDTHA) are conducted for seismic evaluation. Also, five different sizes with four different sets of friction coefficients are assumed 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&aqute; drift and top deck acceleration of the superstructure. The results also indicate the profound effect of the stiffness of the adjacent buildings on the value of the impact they impose to the superstructure. Also, in situations of potential pounding, the increment of the fundamental period of the TFPB base isolator could intensify the impact force up to nearly five-fold.

Key Words
triple friction pendulum bearing; impact; nonlinear dynamic time history analysis; base isolation; pounding

Address
Gholamreza Ghodrati Amiri: Center of Excellence for Fundamental Studies in Structural Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Ayoub Shakouri, Sajad Veismoradi and Pejman Namiranian: School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Introduction of robustness index in the structure is done in three ways: deterministic robustness index, probabilistic robustness index, and risk-based robustness index. In past decades, there have been numerous researches to evaluate robustness index in both deterministic and probabilistic ways. In this research, by using a risk analysis, a risk-based robustness index has been defined for the structure. By creating scenarios in accordance with uncertainty parameters of critical and unexpected gas blast accident, a new method has been suggested for evaluating risk-based robustness index. Finally, a numerical example for the evaluation of risk-based robustness index of a four-storey reinforced concrete moment frame, designed and built based on Eurocode 8 code, has been presented with results showing a lower risk of robustness.

Key Words
risk analysis; risk-based robustness index; gas blast; uncertainty parameters; direct and indirect consequences

Address
Gholamreza Abdollahzadeh: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran

Hadi Faghihmaleki: Structural Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran

Abstract
Earthquake resilience of substations is essential for reliable and sustainable service of electrical grids. The majority of substation equipment consists of cylindrical porcelain components, which are vulnerable to earthquake shakings due to the brittleness of porcelain material. Failure of porcelain equipment has been repeatedly observed in recent earthquakes. Hence, proper seismic modelling of porcelain equipment is important for various limit state checks in both product manufacturing stage and detailed substation design stage. Sheds on porcelain core and cemented joint between porcelain component and metal cap have significant effects on the dynamic properties of the equipment, however, such effects have not been adequately parameterized in existing design guidelines. This paper addresses this critical issue by developing a method for taking these two effects into account in seismic modelling based on numerical and analytical approaches. Equations for estimating the effects of sheds and cemented joint on flexural stiffness are derived, respectively, by regression analyses based on the results of 12 pieces of full-scale equipment in 500kV class or higher. The proposed modelling technique has further been validated by shaking table tests.

Key Words
porcelain electrical equipment; seismic modelling; shed; cemented joint; shaking table test

Address
Sheng Li, Yongfeng Cheng and Zhicheng Lu: China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China

Hing-Ho Tsang: Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia


Abstract
In this paper, it is aimed to present a comparative study about the structural behavior of tall buildings consisting of different type of materials such as concrete, steel or timber using finite element analyses and experimental measurements on shaking table. For this purpose, two 1/60 scaled 28 and 30-stories wooden building models with 40x40 cm and 35x35 cm ground/floor area and 1.45 m-1.55 m total height are built in laboratory condition. Considering the frequency range, mode shapes, maximum displacements and relative story drifts for structural models as well as acceleration, displacement and weight limits for shaking table, to obtain the typical building response as soon as possible, balsa is selected as a material property, and additional masses are bonded to some floors. Finite element models of the building models are constituted in SAP2000 program. According to the main purposes of earthquake resistant design, three different earthquake records are used to simulate the weak, medium and strong ground motions. The displacement and acceleration time-histories are obtained for all earthquake records at the top of building models. To validate the numerical results, shaking table tests are performed. The selected earthquake records are applied to first mode (lateral) direction, and the responses are recorded by sensitive accelerometers. Comparisons between the numerical and experimental results show that shaking table tests are enough to identify the structural response of wooden buildings. Considering 20%, 10% and 5% damping rations, differences are obtained within the range 4.03-26.16%, 3.91-65.51% and 6.31-66.49% for acceleration, velocity and displacements in Model-1, respectively. Also, these differences are obtained as 0.49-31.15%, 6.03-6.66% and 16.97-66.41% for Model-2, respectively. It is thought that these differences are caused by anisotropic structural characteristic of the material due to changes in directions parallel and perpendicular to fibers, and should be minimized using the model updating procedure.

Key Words
experimental measurement; finite element analysis; shaking table; wooden building

Address
Department of Civil Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey

Abstract
As a new type of energy dissipation component with excellent mechanical performance, the Buckling-Retrained Braces (BRBs) were gradually applied in retrofitting and improving seismic performance of reinforced concrete structures in China. In order to investigate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete structures retrofitted with BRBs, quasi-static test of two single-bay and 3-story reinforced concrete frames specimens was conducted and introduced in this paper. Two 1/2 scaled specimens were designed to reflect real prototype structure. For comparison, one control specimen was designed without BRBs, and the other specimen was retrofitted with BRBs. And particularly, for the specimen retrofitted with BRBs, the BRBs were eccentric layout instead of usually concentric or x-shaped layout, aiming to be more suitable for large-span frames. In the test, the failure mode, carrying capacity, deformability, ductility and energy dissipation ability of both two specimens were investigated. Based on the test results of the measured hysterical curves, skeleton curves, the seismic performances such as bearing capacity, plastic deformability, energy dissipation ability and ductility of two specimens were fully studied. And from the test results, it was indicated that the specimen retrofitted with BRBs showed much better seismic performance than the control specimen without BRBs, and the BRBs could effectively improve the seismic performance of the reinforced concrete frame. For the specimen retrofitted with BRBs, the BRBs firstly yielded before the beam-ends and the column-ends, and an expected yielding process or yielding mechanism as well as good seismic performance was obtained. For the specimens without BRBs, though the beam-ends yielded prior to the column-ends, the seismic performance was much poor than that of the specimen with BRBs.

Key Words
reinforced concrete frames; retrofitting methods; buckling-retrained braces (BRBs); seismic performance; quasi-static test; experimental study

Address
School of Civil Engineering, Xi&aqute;an University of Arch & Tech, Xi&aqute;an, Shanxi, 710055, China

Abstract
Superstructures and isolation systems of seismically isolated buildings located close to active faults may observe increased seismic demands resulting from long-period and high-amplitude velocity and displacement pulses existent in nearfault ground motions as their fundamental periods may be close to or coincident with these near-fault pulse periods. In order to take these effects into account, the 1997 Uniform Building Code (UBC97) has specified near-source factors that scale up the design spectrum depending on the closest distance to the fault, the soil type at the site, and the properties of the seismic source. Although UBC97 has been superseded by the 2015 International Building Code in the U.S.A., UBC97 near-source factors are still frequently referred in the design of seismically isolated buildings around the world. Therefore it is deemed necessary and thus set as the aim of this study to assess the necessity and the adequacy of near-source factors for seismically isolated buildings. Benchmark buildings of different heights with isolation systems of different properties are used in comparing seismic responses obtained via time history analyses using a large number of historical earthquakes with those obtained from spectral analyses using the amplified spectrums established through UBC97 near-source factors. Results show that near-source factors are necessary but inadequate for superstructure responses and somewhat unconservative for base displacement response.

Key Words
near-source factors; seismically isolated buildings; time history analysis; response spectrum analysis

Address
Department of Civil Engineering, Istanbul University, 34320 Avcilar, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract
A novel post-tensioned self-centering (SC) concrete beam-column connection with web friction devices has been proposed for concrete moment-resisting frames. This paper presents a probabilistic performance evaluation procedure to evaluate the performance of the self-centering concrete frame with the proposed post-tensioned beam-column connections. Two performance limit states, i.e., immediate occupancy (IO) and repairable (RE) limit states, are defined based on peak and residual story drift ratios. Statistical analyses of seismic demands revealed that the dispersion of residual drifts is larger than that of peak drifts. Due to self-centering feature of post-tensioning connections, the SC frame was found to have high probabilities to be re-centered under the design basis earthquake (DBE) and maximum considered earthquake (MCE) ground motions. Seismic risk analysis was performed to determine the annual (50-year) probability of exceedance for IO and RE performance limit states, and the results revealed that the design objectives of the SC frame would be met under the proposed performance-based design approach.

Key Words
self-centering; concrete frame; web friction device; probabilistic seismic performance; seismic fragility

Address
Long L. Song and Tong Guo: Key Laboratory of Concrete and Prestressed Concrete Structures of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, P.R. China

Long L. Song: College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210098, P.R. China


Abstract
Several theoretical and analytical formulations for the prediction of shear strength in reinforced concrete (RC) beam-to-column joints have been recently developed. Some of these predictive models are included in the most recent seismic codes and currently used in practical design. On the other hand, the influence of the stiffness and strength degradations in RC joints on the seismic performance of RC framed buildings has been only marginally studied, and it is generally neglected in practice-oriented seismic analysis. To investigate such influence, this paper proposes a numerical description for representing the cyclic response of RC exterior joints. This is then used in nonlinear numerical simulations of RC frames subjected to earthquake loading. According to the proposed strategy, RC joints are modelled using nonlinear rotational spring elements with strength and stiffness degradations and limited ductility under cyclic loading. The proposed joint model has been firstly calibrated against the results from experimental tests on 12 RC exterior joints. Subsequently, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses have been carried out on two-, three- and four-storey RC frames, which represent realistic existing structures designed according to old standards. The numerical results confirm that the global seismic response of the analysed RC frames is strongly affected by the hysteretic damage in the beam-to-column joints, which determines the failure mode of the frames. This highlights that neglecting the effects of joints damage may potentially lead to non-conservative seismic assessment of existing RC framed structures.

Key Words
RC frames; joints; seismic analysis

Address
Carmine Lima, Enzo Martinelli: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II n. 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy

Lorenzo Macorini and Bassam A. Izzuddin: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom


Abstract
Near-fault ground motions are characterized by high values of the ratio between the peak of vertical and horizontal ground accelerations, which can significantly affect the nonlinear response of a base-isolated structure. To check the effectiveness of different base-isolation systems for retrofitting a r.c. framed structure located in a near-fault area, a numerical investigation is carried out analyzing the nonlinear dynamic response of the fixed-base and isolated structures. For this purpose, a six-storey r.c. framed building is supposed to be retrofitted by insertion of an isolation system at the base for attaining performance levels imposed by current Italian code in a high-risk seismic zone. In particular, elastomeric (e.g., high-damping-laminated-rubber bearings, HDLRBs) and friction (e.g., steel-PTFE sliding bearings, SBs, or friction pendulum bearings, FPBs) isolators are considered, with reference to three cases of base isolation: HDLRBs acting alone (i.e., EBI structures); in-parallel combination of HDLRBs and SBs (i.e., EFBI structures); FPBs acting alone (i.e., FPBI structures). Different values of the stiffness ratio, defined as the ratio between the vertical and horizontal stiffnesses of the HDLRBs, sliding ratio, defined as the global sliding force divided by the maximum sliding force of the SBs, and in-plan distribution of friction coefficient for the FPs are investigated. The EBI, EFBI and FPBI base-isolation systems are designed assuming the same values of the fundamental vibration period and equivalent viscous damping ratio. The nonlinear dynamic analysis is carried out with reference to near-fault earthquakes, selected and scaled on the design hypotheses adopted for the test structures.

Key Words
r.c. base-isolated structures; elastomeric bearings; friction bearings; nonlinear dynamic analysis; near-fault ground motions

Address
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Universita della Calabria, Rende (Cosenza), Italy


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