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CONTENTS
Volume 4, Number 2, February 2013
 


Abstract
The earthquake responses are studied for the tall flexible structures such as TV towers when the vertical eccentricities between the discrete nodes and the corresponding centroids of investigated lumps are considered. In practical analyses, the tall flexible structures can be made into a spatial-discrete system of some certain length of beam elements with different lengths and cross-sectional areas. These elements are used to construct the investigated lumps in this paper. The different cross-sectional areas and the different lengths of two adjacent elements lead to the appearance of vertical eccentricity between the discrete node and the centroid of investigated lump within the same investigated lump. Firstly, the governing equations are established for a typical investigated lump. Secondly, the calculating formulae of the forces and moments acting on the investigated lump are derived and provided. Finally the new dynamic equilibrium equations with modified mass matrix and assemblage of stiffness matrix have been derived for the stick MDOF model based on beam theory when the existing vertical eccentricities are considered. Numerical results demonstrate that these vertical eccentricities should be considered in order to obtain the accurate earthquake responses for the tall flexible structures.

Key Words
tall flexible structure; earthquake response; investigated lump; vertical eccentricity

Address
Tielin Liu: School of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 P R China; School of Civil Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168 P R China; Yingchun Jiang and Yu Luan: School of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 P R China

Abstract
Vulnerability studies on the existing building stock require that a large number of buildings is analyzed to obtain statistically significant evaluations of the seismic performance. Therefore, analytical evaluation methods need to be based on simplified methodologies of analysis which can afford the treatment of a large building population with a reasonable computational effort. Simplified Pushover-Based Earthquake Loss Assessment approach (SP-BELA), where a simplified methodology to identify the structural capacity of the building through the definition of a pushover curve is adopted, was developed on these bases. Main objective of the research work presented in this paper is to validate the simplified methodology implemented in SP-BELA against the results of more sophisticated nonlinear dynamic analyses (NLDAs). The comparison is performed for RC buildings designed only to vertical loads, representative of the

Key Words
vulnerability; existing buildings; reinforced concrete; nonlinear dynamic analyses; simplified methods

Address
B. Borzi: Eucentre, European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering, Pavia 27100, Italy; M. Vona and A. Masi: School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza 85100, Italy; R. Pinho and D. Pola: Department of Structural Mechanics, University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy

Abstract
It is well known that the properties of the soil deposits, especially the damping, depend on both frequency and strain amplitude. Therefore it is important to consider both dependencies to calculate the soil response against earthquakes in order to estimate input motions to buildings. However, it has been difficult to calculate the seismic response of the soil considering both dependencies directly. The author has studied the time domain evaluation of the frequency dependent dynamic stiffness, and proposed a simple hysteretic damping model that satisfies the causality condition. In this paper, this model was applied to nonlinear analyses considering the effects of the strain amplitude dependency of the soil. The basic characteristics of the proposed method were studied using a two layered soil model. The response behavior was compared with the conventional model e.g. the Ramberg-Osgood model and the SHAKE model. The characteristics of the proposed model were studied with regard to the effects of element divisions and the frequency dependency that is a key feature of the model. The efficiency of the model was confirmed by these studies.

Key Words
frequency dependency; strain dependency; soil response; hysteretic damping; nonlinear analysis

Address
Naohiro Nakamura: Research & Development Institute, Takenaka Corporation, 1-5-1, Ohtsuka, Inzai, Chiba, Japan, 270-1395

Abstract
In recent decades, it has been realized that increasing the lateral stiffness of structure subjected to lateral loads is not the only parameter enhancing safety or reducing damage. Factors such as ductility and damping govern the structural response due to lateral loads. Despite the significant contribution of damping in resisting lateral loads, especially at resonance, there is no accurate mathematical representation for it. The main objective of this study is to develop a damping identification procedure for linear systems based on a mixed numerical-experimental approach, assuming viscous damping. The proposed procedure has been applied to a laboratory experiment associated with a numerical model, where a hollow rectangular steel cantilever column, having three lumped masses, has been fixed on a shaking table subjected to different exciting waves. The modal damping ratio has been identified; in addition, the effect of adding filling material to the hollow specimen has been studied in relation to damping enhancement. The results have revealed that the numerically computed response based on the identified damping is in a good fitting with the measured response. Moreover, the filling material has a significant effect in increasing the modal damping.

Key Words
damping identification; linear system; shaking table; steel tube; filling material

Address
Hazem Hossam El-Anwar, Mohammed Hassanien Serror and Hesham Sobhy Sayed: Dept. of Structural Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt

Abstract
The present paper aims at studying the seismic response of structures equipped with viscoelastic dampers (VED). The performance of such a passive control system is here analyzed using the energy balance concept, which leads to an optimal design process. The methodology is based on an energy index (EDI) whose maximization permits determination of the optimal mechanical characteristics of VED. On the basis of a single degree of freedom model, it is shown that the maximum value of EDI corresponds to a simultaneous optimization of the significant kinematic and static response quantities, independently of the input. By using the proposed procedure, the optimal design of new and existing structures equipped with VED, inserted in traditional bracing systems, are here analyzed and discussed.

Key Words
viscoelastic dampers; seismic response; energy balance; random vibrations; optimal design

Address
F. Paolacci: University Roma Tre, Department of Structures, Rome, Italy


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