Sharif Digital Repository

Iran plateau is situated over the Alpide-Himalaya earthquake belt. Tectonic studies indicate that this plateau has a very high density of active and recent faults; as a result, Iran is at risk of damaging earthquakes. Experience of past severe earthquakes shows previous designed structures do not have enough strength instead of real earthquake forces, therefore vulnerability study of existing structures and give a technical and economical retrofitting plan of them is required. Conventional methods of seismic rehabilitation for example using concrete shear walls or steel braces are not suitable for some buildings. Nowadays, passive control systems have been successfully used for reducing the... 

In this thesis, the behavior of proposed moment resisting precast beam-column concrete connection under cyclic and monotonic loads is investigated. In this study, the finite element models of precast and monolithic middle and corner connections are created. The results of finite element analysis under cyclic loading is verified with existing experimental results based on failure mode, ductility, energy dissipation capacity and flexural strength. Based on the results of nonlinear finite element analysis, the analytical behavior of samples is in good agreement with experimental results and finite element analysis of proposed precast connection can be replaced with supplementary tests. Then the... 

The detuning of the structures equipped with Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) caused by their nonlinear behavior under strong ground motions is a real concern in their practical application. This thesis presents a feasibility study on the effectiveness of TMDs in reducing the seismic response and the resulting structural damage of reinforced concrete structures under intense ground motion. A number of 2-D concrete moment resisting frames with different numbers of stories are considered. TMDs are used as a mean to protect these structural models against ground excitation. The mass of TMDs are varied from 1% to 5% of the first effective modal mass of the structural models. IDARC 2-D program is used... 

One of the most important problems that challenge the researchers in modeling physical phenomena is the Impact Problem. The complexity of impact problems is due to the fact that this problem consists of various sub-problems, each of which of high complexity and in order to have a clear understanding and correct modeling of the problem, one needs to address each and every one of these problems with great effort, severity and punctuality.Impact problems often involve one or more dynamic systems that can also be subjected to dynamic loading. This loading could be a result of external agents or dynamic interaction of the two bodies with each other. In cases where the problem involves interaction... 

Research on the characteristics of the near field earthquakes has been very popular in recent years due to the considerable damages they have caused to the structures located within the vicinity of seismic sources. The incapability of response spectra for structural damage assessment has been revealed through recent investigations. The recorded data show that the near field earthquakes are often accompanied by a large energy pulse in the beginning of the records caused by the so-called directivity phenomenon. That has encouraged many researchers to study the possibility of using the velocity pulse of these records to evaluate the imposed seismic demands on structures. Thus, investigating the... 

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... 

Composite systems consisting of concrete columns and steel beams are introduces as structural systems in recent years. These structural systems enjoy merits of both steel and concrete frames by efficiently combining the advantages of them. This study is allocated to lateral force resistance system using armed concrete and structural steel. Advantages of composite structures rather to those of two other conventional ones are among performance characteristics under ultimate loads, economical conservation, and higher speed of construction.In this research the aim is to study these frame under earthquake induced loads. The seismic performances of these composite frames with through column beams,... 

Tunnel form structures have been proposed in building industry during 40 years for financial saving, suitable structural performance and seismic behavior, and the possibility of performance in an industrial form; and they have also been brought up as one of the innovative technologies of construction in Iran for a couple of years. So far, these structures have been subject to study by the researchers less than frame structures. In comparison to the common structures, evaluating the behavior of these structures is analyzable as two or three-dimensional elements. In this research, the nonlinear behavior of these structures has been simulated and evaluated by using three-dimensional elements;... 

Explosion as a physical phenomenon have various effects on the environment, including living organisms, surrounding buildings, equipment and infrastructure there. Due to such extreme loading conditions, efforts have been made during the past three decades to develop methods of structural analysis and design to resist blast loads. The analysis and design of structures subjected to blast loads require a detailed understanding of blast phenomena and the dynamic response of various structural elements. The most appropriate method for evaluating the behavior of structures under blast loading is performance approach which specifies the response of structures against explosion. It seems that... 

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,... 

Steel bracing systems can be used effectively for seismic retrofitting of existing RC buildings as well as for seismic design of new building. Steel bracing system has been used to increase the lateral load resistance of steel structures. In recent years the concept of steel bracing has also been applied to the retrofitting of reinforced concrete frames, especially to improve seismic performance of non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings. The use of steel bracing systems for seismic rehabilitation of RC frames offers some advantages such as (a) minimal added weight to the structure; (b) ease and speed of construction;(c) increased architectural flexibility; in comparison with RC shear... 

Dynamic response of structures, against ground motion, is one of the most important issues in earthquake engineering. A variety of approaches and apparatus have been developed for this purpose. One of these equipments is metallic dampers. Such apparatuses provide damping, accompanied with reasonably strong lateral stiffness; hence, they are named as “Added Damping And Stiffness” (ADAS). The present study aims to evaluate the performance of a common metal damper consisted of triangular metal plates known as “Triangular Added Damping And Stiffness” (TADAS). In this investigation, the performance of TADAS, in an eight story irregular in plan steel structure, is extensively considered. A 3-D... 

Aiming to improve the extraction performance of wind energy has led to the noticeable increase of the structural dimensions in the modern wind turbines. The larger blade with more flexibility experiences large structural deformation even under nominal operational loading, so the nonlinear modeling and analysis of these structures have become as important subject of the recent wind turbine researches. In this dissertation, the geometrical exact model of the rotating wind turbine blade under the effects of the tower tip's motion, and also the operational loading comprising the aerodynamic and gravitational loadings is presented. In this way, the geometrical exact beam formulation is developed... 

Considering connections as ideally rigid or pinned is a common assumption during design and analysis of steel moment frames. However, in real world, steel connections show a non-linear behavior between these two ideal states. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of partially restrained connections on the design and performance of two-dimensional steel moment frames under vertical and horizontal loads that are applied statically. For this aim, nonlinear finite element modeling is used in probabilistic evaluation process to assess the performance of existing structures. To capture the real behavior of structure in models, geometric and material sources of nonlinearity are... 

Problems with composite materials can indicate the lack of mechanical properties of the layers, especially in high temperature, which led to the expansion of functionally graded materials. The most important application of these materials is in high temperature environments .therefore the study of their behavior under mechanical and thermal loads in the range of small and large deformations is very important.The purpose of this research is to provide an analytical solution for nonlinear behavior of functionally graded circular sector plates under thermomechanical load.The material properties are graded through the plate thickness according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction... 

In this research a new type of external post-tensioned concrete slab is proposed. In this system, the tension force of cables is used as upward force acting at the bottom face of slab. To achieve this behavior, two short concrete columns mounted at the bottom face of slab and act as the middle supports for the cables. Based on the cable force and its angle, an upward force is applied to the slab at the location of columns. In fact, a truss structure comprising of the concrete slab as compression cords, cables as tension cords, and columns as ties. By virtue of Kirchhoff’s plate theory, an analytical treatment of the slab under gravity loads is addressed. For analytical study, it is assumed... 

This paper investigates the behavior of the Y-shaped bracing system. Because of the special type of eccentricity in this system, the behavior of the frame is strongly dependent on the geometrical changes of the braces. So that even in the elastic region, it shows the geometrically nonlinear behavior. The amount of eccentricity is very effective on the nonlinear behavior of the frame. Also the ratio of cross sections of the bracing members has a very important impact on the expected performance of the frame. The results show that this system tolerates large displacements, and can act like a base isolation system. Firstly, using a two-dimensional accurate modeling related to the geometrical... 

Seismic isolation is well known as an effective and applicable technique to protect structures from destructive ground motions. Considerable functional and economical advantages of this technique have led to application of isolation systems at upper levels. In this study, seismic responses of a 6-story structure with a constant fundamental period, which is seismically isolated at the base and mid-height by non-linear isolation systems with variable nominal periods, are investigated. Analytical results indicate that stories below mid-height isolator show large changes in seismic responses caused by changes in isolator nominal period in comparison with upper stories. Although the fundamental... 

This research studies behavior and implementing of telescopic lead shear damper in structures. Telescopic lead shear damper (TLSD) is a type of metallic yielding dampers that can dissipated energy with usage of shear yielding of lead. TLSD is made from behind act of two lead shear damper (LSD) like a telescope. Lead shear damper composed of two coaxial steel pipes where their interfacial gap is filled with pure lead. The interface of lead and steel pipes are roughened in a threaded form to guarantee the no-slip condition across the interface. Due to stable and fat force displacement hysteresis loops of TLSD, this device can be used in structures subjected to wind, seismic, and other dynamic... 

The numerical modeling of engineering contact problems is one of the most difficult and demanding tasks in computational mechanics. Frictional contact can be observed in many problems; such as: crack propagation, metal forming operation, drilling pile etc. The thermodynamic coupling problems arise naturally in many industrial processes, such as thermal protection structures ,nuclear fuel elements, layerd structures , heat exchanger as well as metal forming. In these situations predicting temperature field as well as the stress field is of considerable applied importance. When two or more bodies are forced to contact whit each other as a result of thermal or/and mechanical load thermodynamic...