Sharif Digital Repository

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... 

In steel structured buildings the connection of columns to foundations is of practical significance. This connection customarily is performed by a base plate, which is connected to the foundation with bolts. The columns and base plates are usually prepared separately, and later are welded together by contractors. Due to the errors in the process of fabrication, these plates are proposed with larger dimensions than those suggested by the designers. However, it is believed that the utilization of stiffeners, which are welded to the columns in a perpendicular state, reduces the stress field inside the base plates significantly. Therefore, by use of stiffeners the thickness of base plates can be... 

The Overstrength, Ductility and the Response Modification Factor (R) for 70 steel X-braced , Inverted-V-Braced and Offcenter Bracing System frames were evaluated by performing pushover analysis of model structure with various stories (3,6,9,12&15 story) and span length (4,6&8 meter). Some result were compared with those from nonlinear dynamic analysis. According to the analysis result the R factors obtained from nonlinear dynamic analysis are 15% more than obtained from pushover analysis and R factors computed from pushover analysis were generally smaller than the values given in the design codes. R factors in Irregular structure in height are about 90% of R values in regular structure in... 

The use of steel as one of the most widely used materials in the construction of structures is accompanied by problems and among them the problem of establishing stability in structure is important. To provide stability in the structure as a whole and for each of its elements, the new edition of the American Specification for Structural Steel Buildings, has introduced three general methods based on the elastic analysis. It includes, direct analysis method, effective length method and first-order analysis method. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. The present study is divided into two parts. The first part gives an overview of the behavior of structures and methods of determining... 

Passive energy dissipation systems are mechanical devices which could spread input energy, reduce response and decrease possible damage of the structure. Dampers were identified as a strong energy dissipation devices with cost efficiency and easy installation and maintanance. In this study, effects of using friction and metallic yield dampers to reduce structural responses are investigated. In addition, a comparison between these devices for reducing responses are conducted. Two 5 and 10 stories buildings with intermediate steel moment frames with and without damper are modeled and designed. It is seen, using of dampers could be reduce sections’ sizes. Seven pairs of earthquake records... 

The parallel combination of friction damper with shape memory alloys has been proposed as a self-centering friction damper (SFDB) in the past. The aim of this study is to improve the performance of the SFDB as M-SFDB and investigate its effect on seismic responses of steel moment resisting structures. The basic idea used in the proposed M-SFDB damper is to create sloped surfaces and using SMA bolts to change the slip load of friction during the loading and unloading cycles. In order to evaluate the effect of the proposed mechanism, four types of 4, 8 and 12-story structures located on site classes B and D are designed using ASCE_7-10 and AISC_360-10 codes. These structural models include... 

The Energy Dissipating Restraint (EDR) is a friction device which can be used to dissipate the energy introduced to a structure by a seismic event.A special characteristic of this device is that it is self-centering, which makes it preeminent among other friction dampers. As a result of high nonlinearity associated with the behavior of the EDR, the analysis and performance assessment of the structures which are outfitted with EDR entail quite a few nonlinear time-history analyses. Regarding the substantial computational cost of this method, the existing provisions have authorized the use of more economical alternative methods for the analysis of the structures whose motions are controlled... 

Application of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) as a means for vibration suppression of structural systems has extensively been explored in recent years. Recovering the applied residual strain upon unloading (super-elasticity) or by heating (shape memory effect) at different temperature ranges are two inherent features of SMA materials that have gained most attention. In this work, the seismic behavior of a proposed beam-column semi-rigid end-plate connection that has been equipped with both steel and SMA studs in austenite phase is investigated. A number of 3-D steel MRF structural models with 6,9 and 12 number of stories are considered. These structural models are subjected to bi-directional... 

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are nowadays promising candidates for seismic engineering appli-cations due to their ability to undergo reversible deformations and to dissipate energy when subjected to cyclic loading. This thesis presents a numerical study of the torsional performance of structures equipped with end-plates connections using SMA as well as high strength steel bolts and identifies the required locations of SMA connections in a number of typical steel mo-ment resisting frames to improve their seismic torsional performance in terms of maximum inter-story drift and residual deformations. In this regard, 6 and 9-story steel structures were considered with eccentricity ratios of 0%,... 

The purpose of this thesis is assessment of seismic performance of self-centering concentric braced frames (SC-CBF). In this structures, the column under tension can uplift from the foundation at a specified level of lateral loading and by using some methods such as post-tensioning (PT) bars or tendons, the structure is able to self-center after severe Earthquakes. In this systems, PT bars and energy dissipation elements resist column uplift. The effect of energy dissipation ratio and initial stress in PT bars was investigated in design and performance of four four-story analytical models. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses were conducted to compare some parameters in these four models... 

Cold-formed steel sections are lightweight materials and suitable for building construction owing to their high structural performance. Conventionally, they are used as purlins and side rails in the building envelopes of industrial buildings. The most common sections are lipped C and Z sections, and the thickness typically ranges from 1.2 to 3.2 mm, and sections with yield strengths at 280, 350 and 450 MPa are commonly available. For connection design, codes of practice for design of cold-formed steel structures only provide design rules for the load carrying capacities of individual fastenings with bolts, screws and welds while no guidance on the structural behavior of connectors such as... 

The utilized structural systems in high-rise buildings are under develop in terms of quantity and quality to increase their resistance under gravity and lateral loads. In addition, widespread researches are conducted to introduce and employ modern structural systems for high-rise buildings to improve there behavior in response to the applied forces, and to reduced the levels of hazards imposed by lateral forces. In this regard in recent years, use of diagrid structural systems has gained most of engineers and architects attention. Architectural limitations and improper site conditions may commonly result in construction of buildings with torsional irregularities. However, presence of... 

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... 

Connections have a crucial role in the behavior of every structure. Amongst various types of connections used in steel structures are those used to connect the columns to the foundations, namely Base Plates. As other types of connections, base plates control the behavior of the structure in various respects including affecting the effective length of columns. The main task of any base plate is to distribute the forces of the column on the foundation in such a manner that the stresses in concrete are below their allowable values. Different configurations, with or without various attachments, are used for designing the base plates hence achieving various types of behavior with various levels... 

Shear walls are constructed to counter the effects of lateral load acting on a structure. In residential construction, shear walls are straight walls that typically form a box which provides all of the lateral support for the building. When shear walls are designed and constructed properly, and they will have the strength and stiffness to resist the horizontal forces. Thus shear walls are one of the most effective building elements in resisting lateral forces during earthquake. By constructing shear walls damages due to effect of lateral forces due to earthquake and high winds can be minimized. Shear walls construction will provide larger stiffness to the buildings there by reducing the... 

Previously, numerous studies were carried out on the shear walls and important information are available in various fields, including wall design with various sections, wall design in areas with high seismicity risk, issues related to the reinforcement of boundary element and etc. In the design codes of reinforced concrete structures in the field of seismic design, some criteria for reinforcement of boundary element in the walls were conducted, but these codes do not answer to designers to arrange the wall with or without eccentricity with respect to column or the effect of separation of wall from the column. Due to the fact that we have a powerful software such as ETABS, design of shear... 

Since the main weight of structures comes from the weight of floor systems, it is desirable to use tin and light floor system in order to reduce gravity and seismic force induced in the structure. However architectural aspects limit the application of short spans in the structural system. The objective of this work was to analyze the adequacy of a design method widely used in the modeling of waffle slabs interaction with steel columns as its supports in steel frames, and to verify if it represents the slab behavior satisfactorily. A real scale waffle slab was laid on a steel column and submitted to service loads. Subsequently it was analyzed with FE method for measuring specific stress,... 

A tensile-compression ring is derived from the spoke wheel principle. The wheel is one of the greatest inventions in mankind. The use of the wheel has developed through time. Engineers found out that the use of the spoke wheel as a roof structure provides many benefits. With the spoke wheel principle a lightweight, cost-efficient roof structure can be made. In recent years the spoke wheel principle has also been applied for oval shaped roofs in order to increase the application of the principle. An example is the use of the roof structure for football stadia. The problem is that the spoke wheel principle will only work at full extend when its shape is completely circular. The question rises... 

In this research, probability distribution of structural demand is estimated using a simplified dynamic analysis which is named Endurance Time method. In this method, the structure is subjected to nonlinear dynamic time history analysis, which its acceleration increases in time. It can be extracted the median of structural demand for earthquakes with different return periods. In customary researches, this estimation is performed using Incremental Dynamic Analysis knowns as IDA. The significant computational effort of IDA is the dominant obstacle that researchers and engineers encounter with. The main advantage of Endurance Time method is the fast estimation of structural demands by reducing... 

The purpose of this study was to find the optimal position and slip force of friction dampers, for improving the seismic performance of regular and irregular steel structures and comparison of dampers final pattern of these buildings.In this regard, one to six floor regular and irregular buildings were designed. These buildings were modeled three-dimensionally in the OpenSees Software, and were subjected to horizontal components of seven far field accelerogram in order to investigate the need for their rehabilitation. The results of the time history analysis of these buildings showed that inter-story drifts exceeds the acceptance criteria which has been assumed 2.5% according to the Life...