Sharif Digital Repository

The method of nonlinear time history analysis is well known as one of the most accurate techniques in seismic analysis of structures. However, this method needs much effort in terms of required data and computational cost. Within the time constrains of design consulting firms, more simple analysis tools are also desirable. One of the simple methods which have been gaining ground, as an alternative to time history analysis, is nonlinear static pushover analysis. In this method, the capacity curve of the structure with respect to the roof displacement is established. In nonlinear static pushover analysis, disproportionate increases in the roof displacement and even outright reversals the... 

The primary goal of seismic design requirements of building codes is to protect life safety of occupants during severe earthquakes. Thus it is required that collapse probability of designed buildings to be acceptably low. However current design codes are strength based and intrinsically experimental. Thus collapse safety of buildings designed by these codes is not known quantitatively. The history of formation and update of seismic building codes is marked by big earthquakes; often serving as landmarks for the evolution of seismic codes and detecting its deficiencies. As time passes, the design criteria become more and more articulate and ambitious, just as the design objectives evolve from... 

General tall buildings consist of different types of structural systems, such as moment resisting frames, with and without shear walls, braces and outriggers. These types of structure have been widely analyzed by many researchers. However, only a few publications are available on the comparison of these structural systems with different stories. In this investigation five types of common structural systems including special moment resisting frame(SMRF), pin structure plus brace, pin structure plus shear wall, SMRF plus brace and SMRF plus shear wall are studied and by doing linear dynamic analysis, a criterion for both lateral displacement and steel tonnage of structures was presented.... 

Dynamic behavior of space structures are of great complexities. On the event of severe earthquake these structures exhibit high resistance and on the other hand, their high rigidity and small deformation makes it necessary to pay attention to their dynamic behavior, especially when combined with other types of structural systems. Also due to lack of sufficient codes and references, their dynamic behavior is still unknown to a great extend. Among these kinds of structures, reinforced concrete double curvature shells, and especially funicular shells, are much more important than others. In this thesis, dynamic response of these kind of structures, especially reinforced concrete domes, in... 

Nonlinear dynamic procedure (NDP) can in general provide more realistic results than nonlinear static procedures (NSPs). That is due to consideration of higher modes effects and the shifts in inertia load patterns as the structural system experiences nonlinear behavior. Therefore, the simplified NSPs based on constant load patterns are inadequate to determine the inelastic seismic demands especially for top stories of tall buildings. The conventional procedures that have been implemented in design codes and guidelines such as ATC-40, FEMA356, FEMA440 and ASCE41-06, apply invariant load patterns such as inverse triangular, equal lateral force (ELF), first mode shape, uniform and SRSS modal... 

Light cold formed steel structures have a wide use in building constructions and industrial projects due to their economical advantages, rapid erection and installation and capability for industrial mass production. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the seismic behavior and to study the seismic requirements for design of Light steel frames (LSF) structures. The cold forming technique, and the basic concepts of cold formed steel members design have been investigated and the basic concepts of seismic design of light cold formed steel structures is discussed. In order to investigate the performance of steel strap framed wall systems and estimate its response modification... 

Nowadays, according to increasing development of construction industry in the world especially in the building area, the need to use technology and innovation for fabrication and maintenance of this industry has increased. And this fact becomes apparent that the use of traditional systems of construction isn’t tailored the countries’ requirements anymore. One of the construction industry’s limitations is the restrictions on architectural designs reys. The columns are among the most important components of structure and have a major role in bearing all gravity and lateral loads and transferring them to the foundation. The failure or destruction of the components in the structure under applied... 

Previous researches has established that retrofitting RC (reinforced concrete) columns with FRP (fiber reinforced polymer) jackets is an effective means of providing external confinement to the column cross section. In an effort to evaluate FRP jacketing technology, this study focused on the confinement effectiveness of FRP jackets for rectangular building-type RC columns. Variables investigated include the following: the type of fibers (AFRP, CFRP), the thickness of the jacket, the shape (rectangular or circular) and aspect ratio of the cross section, and the sharpness of the corners of the rectangular cross sections. The sample structures were designed initially without lateral forces and... 

In this study, seismic performance of steel diagrid structures is investigated using far-field earthquake records and their seismic performance factors, such as overstrength factor (Ω_0), ductility ratio (µ_T) and response modification coefficient (R) are evaluated according to the FEMA P695. To meet this objective, 12 archetype 3-D models of diagrid structure with two different height of 8 and 12 stories and three different diagonal angles of 45, 63.4 and 71.5 degrees are designed according to the ASCE 7-10 and using response modification factor R=3.6. With regard to the main horizontal beam connections with the diagrid system, equal number of models with pin and rigid type of connections... 

Airport Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) are among the most critical structures in an airport that are expected to keep their level of serviceability after severe strong earthquakes. Therefore analysis and design of these structures need a detailed investigation on the seismic behavior of the structure based on the structural characteristics. In this study three different existing reinforced concrete ATCTs have been investigated. As important parameters of earthquake design of structures, response modification factor (R-factor) of these towers will be determined. R-factor reduces elastic force level to design force level and contains the effect of ductility, overstrength. In Iranian seismic... 

Drift spectrum has recently been introduced as a new measure for estimating the inter-story drift demands in buildings under near field ground motions. This new spectrum is developed using a uniform-stiffness continuous beam model. Practical limitations in the procedures based on such beam models have caused structural engineers to pay little attention to drift spectra. This thesis uses a lumped mass, non-uniform beam model to calculate the linearly elastic and also nonlinear drift spectra. The proposed method is simple and can overcome many deficiencies of the previously introduced models. In contrast to the other available methods, it can take into account the very important effect of... 

With occurring severe earthquakes, damages of columns in RC buildings can lead to overall failure and collapse. So retrofitting of such columns that do not comply with the design requirements is necessary to prevent such phenomena. A variety of methods has been introduced so far for retrofitting. The key factors in determining the retrofitting methods are being economic and easily implemented in the design. Confining concrete columns with pre-stressed steel strips is a new technique that is simple and economic. Previous experimental experiments have shown that this method can enhance ductility and overall seismic behavior of such columns.
In the present study three and six story frames... 

Seismic loads are still a challenge for structures and engineers invent and provide seismic resisting systems to resist better against it. Concrete shear walls are well-known seismic resisting system that has had an acceptable performance in occurred seismic events. This system costs noticeable amount of time and material. Fiber-reinforced concretes can be useful to reduce negative effects and provides more positive effects like tensile strength, ductility, impact resisting and etc. Also changes in wall appearance such as corrugating helps to improve shear wall performance as it improves other kinds of plates and shell shaped members in structures. In this thesis, the focus is on “corrugated... 

Today, with the replacement of the old method of force-based design by the new method of performance-based design in structural and earthquake engineering, many structural and earthquake researchers have focused in their studies on this area. The performance-based design aims at enabling engineers to design structures with predictable performance. Designing space structures has particular complexities. In space structures, the failure of a structural member does not necessarily mean the failure of the entire structure, because the redistribution of power will occur between the adjacent members after the failure of a member and the structure can thus have further support capacity. Similarly,... 

The dynamic response of the structural systems are influenced by various parameters such as the effect of higher and torsional modes, the change in frequency or inertial loads caused by the structural softening, frequency content of earthquake records, etc.. Therefore, any method that is only based on static procedure without considering the dynamic characteristics of the structural system may lead to erroneous output. The enhanced pushover procedures have been developed to minimize the inaccuracies of the nonlinear static analyses in predicting the real nonlinear response of structures while maintaining their simplicity. In this research the innovative methods are proposed individually for...