Sharif Digital Repository

An effective procedure to incorporate kinematic interaction (KI) aspects in seismic analysis of soil-structures systems was presented. In this regard, first, the effect of KI on the structural response was investigated with special focus on the role of rocking component of foundation input motion (FIM). This was performed parametrically for a wide range of selected nondimensional parameters, which well define the introduced simplified soil-structure model. It was observed that ignoring the effect of rocking input motion may introduce errors, which can be on the unsafe side especially for slender structures with large embedment ratios. On the other hand, it was known that introducing the... 

Surrounding soil can drastically influence the dynamic response of buildings during strong ground shaking. Soil's flexibility decreases the natural frequencies of the system; and in most cases, soil provides additional damping due to material hysteresis and radiation. The additional damping forces, which are in non-classical form, render the mode shapes of the soil-structure system complex-valued. The response of a soil-foundation system can be compactly represented through impedance functions that have real and imaginary parts representing the stiffness and damping of the system, respectively. These impedance functions are frequency-dependent, and their determination for different... 

A significant segment of system identification literature on civil structures is devoted to response-only identification, simply because lack of measurements of input excitations for civil structures is a fairly common scenario. In recent years, several researchers have successfully adapted a second-order blind identification (SOBI) technique-a method originally developed for "blind source separation" of audio signals-to response-only identification of mechanical and civil structures. However, this development had been confined to fully instrumented classically damped systems. While several approaches have been proposed recently for extending SOBI to non-classically damped systems, they all... 

The concept of equivalent linearization, in which the actual nonlinear structure is replaced by an equivalent linear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system, is extended for soil-structure systems in order to consider the simultaneous effects of soil-structure interaction (SSI) and inelastic behavior of the structure on equivalent linear parameters (ELP). This is carried out by searching over a two-dimensional equivalent period-equivalent damping space for the best pair, which can predict the earthquake response of the inelastic soil-structure system with sufficient accuracy. The super-structure is modeled as an elasto-plastic SDOF system whereas the soil beneath the structure is considered... 

In this study, a new structural bracing system named 'Hat Knee Bracing' (HKB) is presented. In this structural system, a special form of diagonal braces, which is connected to the knee elements instead of beam-column joints, is investigated. The diagonal elements provide lateral stiffness during moderate earthquakes. However the knee elements, which is a fuse-like component, is designed to have one plastic joint in the knee elements for dissipation of the energy caused by strong earthquake. First, a suitable shape for brace and knee elements is proposed through elastic studying of the system and several practical parameters are established. Afterward, by developing applicable and highly... 

Structural systems will normally fail as a consequence of a chain of different components failure es. In this paper, fatigue reliability of fixed offshore platforms is investigated by analyzing different failure scenarios. In order to evaluate the occurrence probability of a special scenario, it is divided into a finite number of sub-scenarios. All combinations of time sequences are generated for a given sequence of failures, using a specially developed program. In order to calculate the occurrence probability of each scenario, a massive reliability analysis should be done for each of corresponding sub-scenarios. A large number of sub-scenarios should be analyzed, therefore implementing time... 

A fully implicit iterative integration procedure is presented for local and geographically distributed hybrid simulation of the seismic response of complex structural systems with distributed nonlinear behavior. The purpose of this procedure is to seamlessly incorporate experimental elements in simulations using existing fully implicit integration algorithms designed for pure numerical simulations. The difficulties of implementing implicit integrators in a hybrid simulation are addressed at the element level by introducing a safe iteration strategy and using an efficient procedure for online estimation of the experimental tangent stiffness matrix. In order to avoid physical application of... 

The need for simplified physical models representing frequency dependent soil impedances has been the motivation behind many researches throughout history. Generally, such models are generated to capture impedance functions in a wide range of excitation frequencies, which leads to relatively complex models. That is while there is just a limited range of frequencies that really influence the response of the structure. Here, a new methodology based on the response-matching concept is proposed, which can lead to the development of simpler discrete models. The idea is then used to upgrade an existing simple model of surface foundations to the case of embedded foundations. The applicability of... 

Through the combination of two types of seismic resisting systems including braced frames and steel shear walls, braced steel shear panel systems can be formed. This new lateral load-resisting system solves some of the defects of current special steel shear walls, such as imposing significant loads on boundary elements along with gravity load effects. Analysis and design of this new structural system underline the importance of having simple and precise finite-element models. To this aim, this paper presents two types of equivalent braced frames termed ‘overall equivalent brace’ and ‘equivalent mid-brace’. The equations of brace area, material strength and strain-hardening ratio are obtained... 

Exploiting of the nanostructure arrays as a promising candidate for excitation of neural cells has been analyzed. Based on the importance of the coupling effect between electrode and neuron, a multiphyscis modeling approach has been proposed. The model incorporates theoretically both structural effects (size, geometry) and electrophysiological effects. The system of equations for proposed model has been solved numerically using Finite Element Method for Poisson equation and Finite Difference Method for Cable equation. In this regards we have combined the system of equations in COMSOL platform with Matlab interface accordingly. We have analyzed the effect of excitation of neuron with an extra... 

A method for construction of large underground spaces based on a new pre-supporting system is introduced. In this paper Mansour Station, in Line 1 of Tabriz Metro (Tabriz Urban Railway Organization, TURO); Iran has been studied using this method. Mansour Station have some special characteristics such as shallow depth, soft surrounding soil, wide span and heavy street traffic, thus requires a method of underground construction that can control the stability of the underground space and the ground settlement. This method includes a pre-supporting system that is called Concrete Arch Pre-supporting System (CAPS). Construction of CAPS is mainly based on construction method of old Iranian small... 

Flexible steel frame system is the most common structural system for mid-rise buildings. Northridge earthquake is turning point in designing flexible steel frames and their connections. During this earthquake a large number of beam-column connections in such structures were ruptured in a brittle manner. After this earthquake many researches were conducted on a variety of beam-column connections with an aim of improving their behavior during earthquake. One such connection which have been studied extensively both experimentally and analytically is a connection with Reduced Beam Section (RBS). The most important advantage of this connection is its high ductility and its ability to dissipate... 

Most seismic design codes accept heavy damages to buildings in case of large earthquakes, provided that they are prevented against collapse. However, this leads to unacceptable consequences, such as very large volume of the required reconstruction works, in large populated cities. One way to get rid of these adverse consequences is using the idea of combining rocking/seesaw motion of the building's structure and energy dissipation at base level to create buildings easily repairable even after a large earthquake. In the present study, this idea has been employed for designing steel buildings with seesaw motion capability by using a central massive column at ground floor, with elastic behavior... 

This paper aims to the investigation of free vibrations of laminated composite tanks partially filled with liquid. The governing equations of liquid motion are derived using a boundary element formulation of incompressible potential flow. The structure of tank is modeled as a composite shell and modal analysis technique is used for structural modeling of the tank. The structural modal equations are combined with the equations of liquid motion to obtain the governing equations of the coupled fluid-structure system. The obtained model is utilized for determination of natural frequencies of some example tanks which represent good agreements in comparison with the literature. Finally, an... 

This paper reveals the consequences of practicing the 2015 National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) soilstructure interaction (SSI) provisions, which form the basis of the 2016 edition of the seismic design standard provided by the ASCE. For this purpose, the probability that the practice of SSI provisions, in lieu of fixed-base provisions, increases the ductility demand of the structure computed. It is subsequently investigated whether the NEHRP provisions are indeed an improvement upon the SSI provisions of the current ASCE seismic design standard. To this end, 720 soil-structure systems with different numbers of stories, structural systems, aspect ratios, and foundation... 

In this paper, the stability of whirling composite cylindrical shells partially filled with two liquid phases is studied. Using the first-order shear shell theory, the structural dynamics of the shell is modeled and based on the Navier-Stokes equations for ideal liquid, a 2D model is developed for liquid motion at each section of the cylinder. In steady state condition, liquids are supposed to locate according to mass density. In this study, the thick shells are investigated. Using boundary conditions between liquids, the model of coupled fluid-structure system is obtained. This coupled fluid-structure model is employed to determine the critical speed of the system. The effects of the main... 

This paper revisits the phenomenon of dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) with a probabilistic approach. For this purpose, a twofold objective is pursued. First, the effect of SSI on inelastic response of the structure is studied considering the prevailing uncertainties. Second, the consequence of practicing SSI provisions of the current seismic design codes on the structural performance is investigated in a probabilistic framework. The soil-structure system is modeled by the sub-structure method. The uncertainty in the properties of the soil and the structure is described by random variables that are input to this model. Monte Carlo sampling analysis is employed to compute the... 

In this paper a new approach is introduced for structural health monitoring of offshore jacket platforms. The procedure uses the measured ambient vibration responses and the corresponding readable natural frequencies and mode shapes of the structural system. Since offshore platforms are composed of heavy topsides supported by jacket structures, participation of the first mode is dominant in each direction in the response of the structure under field excitations. Moreover, ambient vibrations such as wave loads and boat impacts only excite the first modes of the structure. Therefore, it is difficult to find higher modes and the pertinent frequencies by use of accelerometers data. The... 

This paper introduces a new earthquake-resistant building design featuring eccentrically braced frames with steel wall shear panels. It also proposes closed-form expressions for analysis and extension of the existing failure mode control design method for the new structural system. Closed-form equations for internal forces were obtained, and probable failure mechanisms and corresponding lateral load multipliers for secondary effects were identified. Selection of member profiles was completed by the mechanism equilibrium curve concept. Pushover modelling was then performed with plastic hinge distribution corresponding to failure mechanisms. Only small differences were found between the...