December 2024
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26 Reads
Thin-Walled Structures
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December 2024
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26 Reads
Thin-Walled Structures
October 2024
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173 Reads
Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics
Simplified building models are a valuable option for seismic assessment at the regional scale. These models often use calibrated springs to model column behaviour, and recent advances have made them suitable for capturing torsional response in Reinforced‐Concrete Moment‐Resisting‐Frames. Nevertheless, their validation is typically achieved using fixed‐base models, which do not include the influence of soil‐structure interaction (SSI). This study introduces a novel approach to quantify the accuracy of a recently developed simplified model while accounting for dynamic SSI, using a newly implemented, refined 3D Finite Element non‐linear soil model in OpenSees. The accuracy of the simplified structural model is assessed by comparing the results of non‐linear dynamic analyses with those of a refined model in terms of (i) a peak structural demand parameter such as the interstorey‐drift ratio and (ii) fragility curves computed from cloud analysis and accounting for collapse cases. The study presents details of the proposed refined approach for 3D soil modelling in OpenSees, focusing on implementing free‐field boundary conditions and structure‐to‐soil connections. Results show that the accuracy of the simplified model is maintained, even in the presence of SSI, and it successfully captures the overall structural response measured at peak demand. For the proposed case study, the difference between the simplified and refined models’ fragility curves’ medians is 4% and 2% for fixed and SSI models, respectively. The simplified structural model, combined with the refined soil model for SSI effects, presents an innovative and conservative, yet computationally efficient, alternative for seismic risk analysis, even in the presence of structural irregularity.
August 2024
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87 Reads
Structures
Precast RC structures have been widely used in industrial and commercial buildings since the 60 s in the most developed areas. However, during those decades of economic growth, most buildings were constructed without seismic design criteria, accounting for gravity loads only. For this reason, this structural typology often faces a significant seismic risk in earthquake-prone areas due to the lack of effective connection between structural elements. As a result, the seismic retrofit of precast RC structures is essential to prolong their service life and mitigate seismic losses. The present work shows the conceptualisation study of an innovative seismic protection device called Bidirectional Rotational Friction Damper (BRFD) for precast RC structures that behave simultaneously as a beam-to-column joint and damper. This device unifies the concepts of rotational friction dampers and a movable plate system, producing a damping effect along two main directions. Furthermore, the device’s ability to dissipate energy through friction enables it to remain undamaged during multiple seismic events while maintaining its damping capacity. After defining a simplified analytical model, to evaluate the influence of the BRFD on a structure’s behaviour during a seismic event, a case study was conducted on a single-story, single-bay precast reinforced concrete structure made of plane parallel frames, i.e. that lacks secondary frames. Quasi-static and nonlinear time history analyses were performed to evaluate the BRFD efficacy in reducing seismic forces and displacements, and an importance analysis was carried out using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to identify the optimal configuration of the BRFD for the case study. The main results highlight that introducing the BRFD positively influences the dynamic performance of the structure, producing a significant reduction of interstorey drift and total base shear and preventing structural and non-structural damage.
August 2024
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52 Reads