Sharif Digital Repository

Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is a parametric analysis method that has recently emerged in several different forms to estimate more thoroughly structural performance under seismic loads. Using IDA , the objective is to study the effect of the irregular distribution of stiffness and strength along the height of a 9 story 3D steel structure model. The reference and each modified structure are hence forced to show the complete spectrum of behavior from elasticity to final global instability, allowing the estimation of capacities for the full range of limit-states and enabling a straightforward comparison without needing to “tune” the structures to the same fundamental period and/or the... 

Continuous improvement of the existing seismic design codes and regulations clearly shows the need for evaluation and probable retrofitting of the existing building structures. A large amount of literature has been produced on different topics related to retrofitting including FEMA 273, ATC 40, FEMA356 and most recently the draft of FEMA 440. On the other hand, it has been long recognized that the response of buildings to strong ground shaking caused by earthquakes results in inelastic behavior. Until recently, most structural analysis techniques devised for practical application relied on linear procedures to predict the seismic response of the building structures. But due to various... 

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... 

With the growth of semantic-aware environments, such as semantic web, new security requirements are imposed in access control procedures. An access control model for semantic web should take the semantic relationships (in three scopes of subject, object and action) into account in its access decisions. Considering the advantages of logic based models and description logic foundation of semantic web, we use the description logic as a basis to propose access control models in this environment. On the other hand, in some applications, such as e-banking environments, policy definition with the constraint(s) based on previous users’ accesses might be crucial. To consider this aspect, in this... 

Management decisions, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and reservoir development plans in petroleum industries are based on predictions by reservoir simulation. Due to uncertainties in model parameters or engineering assumptions, the simulation results are not accurate, while they are correct. One remedy is to match simulation results with engineering measurements, typically pressure and flow rate, by adjusting model parameters. In Reservoir Engineering literature, this is called History Matching and is an optimization problem. Common methods of history matching are based on finite difference simulation, and therefore have a very low speed. In addition, these methods usually ignore Geostatistical... 

Recent studies show that irregular structures have been damaged more than regular ones during earthquakes. This proves importance of seismic response determination of this type of structures. Today, Codes define irregularity in structures and restrict seismic analysis and design of these types of structures. The Endurance Time (ET) method is a time-history based dynamic pushover procedure for seismic analysis and design of structures that has been recently proposed in Sharif University. This thesis illustrates ET capability in analysis and design of vertically irregular frames. Irregular frames with three, seven and twelve story high were designed with two types of mass and stiffness... 

In recent years there has been a huge amount of attention in the application of the base isolation system as a passive procedure to limit seismic response of structures. A number of international codes including UBC97, ASCE07-2005, and ASCE-2010 have devoted a special part for the Seismic analysis and design of base-isolated structures. The present work investigates the vertical distribution of the lateral seismic force, for base-isolated structures suggested by the ASCE07_05 code under near field earthquakes. Near field earthquakes have attracted so much interest among the researchers and engineers due to their disastrous effects on structures. According to the recorded data, it is... 

Management decisions, enhanced oil recovery, and reservoir development plans in petroleum industries are based on predictions by reservoir simulation. Due to uncertainties in model parameters or engineering assumptions, the simulation results are not accurate, while they are correct. For more accurate estimation of unknown production quantities, it is required to characterize the unknown parameters and its uncertainty. By using static data alone the result of characterization is unreliable and unsure, therefore dynamic data use practically. In reservoir engineering literature, this is called “History Matching”.The ensemble Kalman filter is an optimal recursive data processing algorithm based... 

The existing statistical studies implies that in Iran like most of developing countries, the great percent of houses are traditional. Statistics of the most disastrous current quakes also show damages caused by masonry structures in developing countries. The main problem of brick and masonry structures especially the unreinforced one is their weak performance against quake. Different methods are use to analyse the seismic performance of this structures. The modern endurance time method is a kind of time history analysis using standard increasing accelerograms which examines different parameters of structure behavior during excitation actions. In this project we analyse these structures using... 

Seismic isolation is a method for seismic-resistant design of structures against earthquake and is one of the important control of structures technologies. Codification and publishing of codes for design of seismic isolation takes place widely since 1980s and this codification has undergone extensive evolutions during its developing process. In this project initially the developing process and fundamentals of codifying regulations of seismic design have been investigated and then the developing process of codifying regulations of seismic isolation in current important international codes like ASCE7-05, Eurocode 8, and Japanese code has also been considered. After considering these two... 

In recent decades, most of the codes have placed a high value on Performance Based Design of structures; however, these methods are computationally complex and time-consuming, and caused researchers to seek new and efficient methods to investigate performance of structures under different intensities of seismic loading. The Usage of Endurance Time method (ET) and thus reducing the size of analysis can be a useful tool for excuting Performance Based Design of structures. Endurance Time analysis is based on time history analysis, but in this method structure subjected to an intensifying acceleration function and different damage indices of the structure are evaluated through analysis time. The... 

A set of infected computers which are coordinated in some manner by one’s willingness and can perform malicious activities and provide threats in the cyberspace forms a network of bots, namely botnet. Botnet threats are more important and significant than other malwares due to their huge scale. A lot of computers coming together in a network obeying one’s commands allows their controller to conduct, for example, DoS attacks larger than ever seen incidents. This thesis, introduces botnets, their various threats, and an effective technique for detecting them. For this reason, different probable states of bots will be studied and modeled as a coherent bot life-cycle. The bot life-cycle allows... 

In performance-based earthquake engineering methodologies, it is necessary to estimate the probability of seismic structural demands exceeding a specified performance state under different seismic hazard levels. This methodology requires a probabilistic framework in which estimation of specific seismic demands and related uncertainties should be incorporated. Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) allows the estimation of the mean annual frequency (MAF) of exceedance of a ground motion parameter or a linear elastic response spectral ordinate, taking into account the seismic hazard in a site with specified geological conditions. In performance-based seismic assessment of existing... 

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... 

One of the major issues raised in the numerical models is the effects of various input parameters on the model output. Identifying the most important parameters in the output is very important in petroleum engineering, especially in tuning equation of states and history matching. Screening the most important parameters from unimportant parameters is assessable by sensitivity analysis.In this study local and global sensitivity analysis methods are used to identify the most important parameters in tuning EOS for seven different fluid samples. Global sensitivity analysis methods are more successful in correct ranking of tuning parameters. Morris method as a global method can screen the... 

Truth and Method is one of the two or three most important works of this century on the philosophy of humanistic studies. The book is powerful, exciting, but undeniably difficult. Published when Gadamer was sixty, it gathers the ripe fruit of a lifetime's reading, teaching, and thinking. Because it is immersed in German philosophy and scholarship, the book is even more challenging for an American reader. An emerging body of commentary in English as well as the many shorter essays Gadamer has, happily, lived to write and which are increasingly available in translation provide additional means of access to his thought. Truth and Method, however, remains his magnum opus, the comprehensive and... 

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... 

Hydrocarbon reservoirs development and management is based on their dynamic models. To encounter various types of error during model building, model parameters are adjusted to produce reservoir historical data by assimilation (history matching) of reservoir production or 4D seismic data. Among the existing sequential methods for automatic history matching, ensemble Kalman filter and its variants have displayed promising results. The innovations of this thesis for ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) are presented into three major orients; these includes adaptive localization/regularization, characterization of original PUNQ test model and characterization of channelized reservoir.
To mitigate... 

In the recent decades, outrigger systems have come into widespread use in tall buildings. This structural form has good capability to reduce the response of the high-rise structures subjected to lateral loads. Despite extensive recent use, outrigger is not listed as seismic load resistance system in current building codes and specific design guidelines is not available. In the other hands, inherent damping of structure influence on the analysis and design of the tall buildings. Measurements in actual buildings indicate that the damping in tall buildings is lower than damping in low to mid-rise buildings. Recently, a novel structural system, which is defined as damped outrigger, has been... 

“Progress” is among most frequently used terms in the past few centuries in public discussions, scientific communities as well as economic and sociopolitical policy making. This term has been used in our daily conversations so frequently that it seems to become an intrinsic goal for human beings. However, even a short survey of the introduced meanings of and suggested approaches to achieve “progress” during the last four centuries - since the term was first used- demonstrates that we are faced with a multitude of views from the different - and sometimes contradictory - schools of thoughts. Unfortunately, in recent decades, despite our national desire to “progress”, we have not yet thought...