INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Year:2014 | Volume:6 | Issue:3|Papers Count:9

This paper presents the results of wind tunnel tests on rectangular building models having the same plan area and height but different side ratios of 1, 1.56, 2.25, 3.06 and 4. The models were made from perspex sheet at a geometrical scale of 1: 300. The wind pressure coefficients on all the models were evaluated from pressure records measured in a closed circuit wind tunnel under boundary layer flow for wind directions of 0o to 90o at an interval of 15o. The mean responses of rectangular tall buildings having different side ratios were also evaluated from the experimentally obtained wind loads. Effectiveness of side ratio of buildings in changing the surface pressure distribution and mean responses of prototype buildings is assessed for wind directions of 0o to 90o at an interval of 15o. It is observed that the side ratio of buildings significantly affects the wind pressures on leeward and sidewalls, whereas wind pressure on windward wall is almost independent of side ratio. Further, the wind incidence angles and side ratio of the buildings significantly affect its mean displacements as well as torque.

Due to earthquake, buildings are damaged partially or completely. Particularly structures with soft storey are mostly affected. In general, such damaged structures are repaired and reused. In this regard, an experimental investigation was planned and conducted on models of single-bay, single-storey of partial concrete infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frames up to collapse with corner, central and diagonal steel bracings. Such collapsed frames were repaired with epoxy resin and retested. The initiative was to identify the behaviour, extent of restored ultimate strength and deflection of epoxy-retrofitted frames in comparison to the braced RC frames. The performance of such frames has been considered only for lateral loads.In comparison to bare RC frames, epoxy repaired partial infilled frames have significant increase in the lateral load capacity. Central bracing is more effective than corner and diagonal bracing. For the same load, epoxy repaired frames have comparable deflection than similar braced frames.

The static stability of an asymmetric sandwich beam with viscoelastic core on viscoelastic supports at the ends and subjected to an axial pulsating load and a steady, one-dimensional temperature gradient is investigated by computational method. The equations of motion and associated boundary conditions are obtained using the Hamilton’s energy principle. Then, these equations of motion and the associated boundary conditions are nondimensionalised.A set of Hill’s equations is obtained from the non-dimensional equations of motion by the application of the general Galerkin method. The static buckling loads are obtained from the Hill’s equations. The effects of shear parameter, geometric parameters, core loss factors, and thermal gradient on the non-dimensional static buckling loads zones have been investigated.

The existing seismic isolation systems are based on well-known and accepted physical principles, but they are still having some functional drawbacks. As an attempt of improvement, the Roll-N-Cage (RNC) isolator has been recently proposed. It is designed to achieve a balance in controlling isolator displacement demands and structural accelerations. It provides in a single unit all the necessary functions of vertical rigid support, horizontal flexibility with enhanced stability, resistance to low service loads and minor vibration, and hysteretic energy dissipation characteristics. It is characterized by two unique features that are a self-braking (buffer) and a self-recentering mechanism. This paper presents an advanced representation of the main and unique features of the RNC isolator using an available finite element code called SAP2000. The validity of the obtained SAP2000 model is then checked using experimental, numerical and analytical results. Then, the paper investigates the merits and demerits of activating the built-in buffer mechanism on both structural pounding mitigation and isolation efficiency. The paper addresses the problem of passive alleviation of possible inner pounding within the RNC isolator, which may arise due to the activation of its self-braking mechanism under sever excitations such as near-fault earthquakes. The results show that the obtained finite element code-based model can closely match and accurately predict the overall behavior of the RNC isolator with effectively small errors.Moreover, the inherent buffer mechanism of the RNC isolator could mitigate or even eliminate direct structure-tostructure pounding under severe excitation considering limited septation gaps between adjacent structures. In addition, the increase of inherent hysteretic damping of the RNC isolator can efficiently limit its peak displacement together with the severity of the possibly developed inner pounding and, therefore, alleviate or even eliminate the possibly arising negative effects of the buffer mechanism on the overall RNC-isolated structural responses.

Increasing number of tall buildings in urban population caused development of tall building structures.One of the main lateral load resistant systems is core wall system in high-rise buildings. Core wall system has two important behavioral aspects where the first aspect is related to reduce the lateral displacement by the core bending resistance and the second is governed by increasing of the torsional resistance and core warping of buildings. In this study, the effects of closed section core in the last story have been considered on the behavior of models. Regarding this, all analyses were performed by ETABS 9.2.v software (Wilson and Habibullah). Considering (a) drift and rotation of the core over height of buildings, (b) total and warping stress in the core body, (c) shear in beams due to warping stress, (d) effect of closing last story on period of models in various modes, (e) relative displacement between walls in the core system and (f) site effects in far and near field of fault by UBC97 spectra on base shear coefficient showed that the bimoment in open core is negative in the last quarter of building and it is similar to wall–frame structures. Furthermore, analytical results revealed that closed section core in the last story improves behavior of the last quarter of structure height, since closing of core section in the last story does not have significant effect on reducing base shear value in near and far field of active faults.

Finite element analyses are conducted to model the tensile capacity of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC). For this purpose dog-bone specimens are casted and tested under direct and uniaxial tension. Two types of aggregates (brick and stone) are used to cast the SFRC and plain concrete. The fiber volume ratio is maintained 1.5 %.Total 8 numbers of dog-bone specimens are made and tested in a 1000-kN capacity digital universal testing machine (UTM). The strain data are gathered employing digital image correlation technique from high-definition images and high-speed video clips. Then, the strain data are synthesized with the load data obtained from the load cell of the UTM. The tensile capacity enhancement is found 182-253 % compared to control specimen to brick SFRC and in case of stone SFRC the enhancement is 157-268 %.Fibers are found to enhance the tensile capacity as well as ductile properties of concrete that ensures to prevent sudden brittle failure. The dog-bone specimens are modeled in the ANSYS 10.0 finite element platform and analyzed to model the tensile capacity of brick and stone SFRC. The SOLID65 element is used to model the SFRC as well as plain concretes by optimizing the Poisson’s ratio, modulus of elasticity, tensile strength and stress-strain relationships and also failure pattern as well as failure locations. This research provides information of the tensile capacity enhancement of SFRC made of both brick and stone which will be helpful for the construction industry of Bangladesh to introduce this engineering material in earthquake design.Last of all, the finite element outputs are found to hold good agreement with the experimental tensile capacity which validates the FE modeling.

This paper deals with the detection of crack in frame structures based on Euler-Bernoulli beams theorem by the Spectral Element Method. The effect of cracking is modeled using Castigliano’s theorem and laws of fracture mechanics as mass-less rotational and translational springs which are embedded in different locations of the steel frame structure in both beam and column. The crack location is revealed precisely without prior knowledge of their positions in frame structure. This means that there is no necessity to know the location and the node number which is assigned to crack. Finally the effect of crack when it is embedded simultaneously in both beam and column members, is also studied.

The paper introduces the principles of displacement-based plastic design (DBPD) and its applications to the efficient design of parallel chord steel vierendeel girders under normal nodal forces. A simplifying assumption has been made that the mathematical model is composed of imaginary, pin connected modules that fit within the bays of the prototype. The use of this modeling concept in conjunction with the applications of the uniform strength theory leads to the development of an algorithm that is ideally suited for manual, minimum weight design of steel vierendeel girders under any distribution of vertical nodal forces. The resulting solutions are exact and unique and lend themselves well to DBPD and minimum weight treatment. In DBPD which is akin to performance control, member strengths and stiffnesses are assigned rather than tested. Several generic examples have been provided to illustrate the applications of the proposed design procedures.The numerical results of these examples have been verified through long hand and computer methods of analysis.An extensive proof of the proposed method of approach has been provided in the ‘‘Appendix’’.

This paper presents the effect of reinforced high performance concrete (HPC) in exterior beam-column joint with and without fibre under monotonic loading. In this experimental investigation, cross-diagonal bars have been provided at the joint for reducing the congestion of reinforcement in joints, and also M75 grade of concrete with optimum mix proportion of 10 % silica fume and 0.3 % glass fibre was used. Four exterior beam-column joint sub-assemblages were tested. The specimens were divided into two types based on the reinforcement detailing.Type A comprises two joint sub-assemblages with joint detailing as per construction code of practice in India (IS 456-2000), and Type B comprises two joint subassemblages with joint detailing as per ductile detailing code of practice in India (IS 13920-1993). In each group there was one specimen of control mix and the remaining one specimen of fibre-reinforced mix. All the test specimens were designed to satisfy the strong column–weak beam concept. The performances of specimens were compared with the control mix and the fibre-reinforced mix. The results show that exterior beam-column joint specimens with silica fume and glass fibre in the HPC mix showed better performance.