Sharif Digital Repository

This paper puts forth a wavelet-based methodology for generating endurance time (ET) excitations. Conventional simulating practice expresses signals by acceleration values which are then computed via unconstrained nonlinear optimization. Dynamic characteristics of signals, including frequency content, are not represented directly in this type of variable definition. In this study, a new algorithm is developed to generate ET excitations in discrete wavelet transform (DWT) space. In this algorithm, signals are represented by transform coefficients. In addition, objective functions are modified in order to obtain transform coefficients and return the objective function values. The proposed... 

The endurance time (ET) method is a dynamic analysis in which structures are subjected to intensifying excitations, also known as ET excitation functions (ETEF). The ET method is a tool for structural response prediction. The main advantage of the ET method over conventional approaches is its much lower demand for computational efforts. The concept of acceleration spectra is used in generating existing ETEFs. It is expected that ETEF acceleration spectra increase consistently with time and remain proportional to a target spectrum. Nonlinear unconstrained optimization is commonly used to generate ETEFs. Generating new ETEFs is a complicated time-consuming mathematical problem. If the target... 

In this paper, application of a new dynamic procedure called Endurance Time (ET) method in seismic analysis of steel frames is explained. In this method, structures are subjected to gradually intensifying ground shaking and their performance is assessed based on their response considering relevant design criteria at each intensity level. By considerably reducing the number of time history analyses for assessment of structural response at different intensities, this procedure tends to pave a way for practical performance based design of structures. The accuracy of ET method in predicting the response of structures in linear and nonlinear analysis is investigated by considering a set of steel... 

The Endurance Time (ET) method is a new dynamic pushover procedure in which structures are subjected to gradually intensifying acceleration functions and their performance is assessed based on the length of the time interval that they can satisfy required performance objectives. In this paper, the accuracy of the Endurance Time method in estimating average deformation demands of low and medium rise steel frames using ETASOf series of ET acceleration functions has been investigated. The precision of the ET method in predicting the response of steel frames in nonlinear analysis is investigated by considering a simple set of moment-resisting frames. An elastic-perfectly-plastic material model... 

Various damage indexes have been introduced in recent years incorporating different parameters for estimating structural damage. Amongst these indexes, Plastic Ductility and Drift have been the center of attention of standards and building codes, like FEMA-356, because of their straightforward physical interpretation and ease of calculation. In this paper, several steel moment frames have been considered and their responses have been evaluated under a set of scaled earthquakes. A group of various damage indexes, which included cumulative and non cumulative, cyclic fatigue based, deformation based and modal parameter based, has been considered and the damage to structures has been evaluated... 

In this paper, the seismic response of anchored cylindrical steel tanks with various dimensional parameters has been investigated by endurance time method considering fluid-structure interaction effects. Various response quantities, such as stresses and displacements, have been evaluated by subjecting tanks to specially designed intensifying accelerograms and their performance is judged based on their response at predefined level(s) of dynamic excitation. It is shown that ET analysis can reliably predict the result of ground motion time history analysis in all seven tank models studied. In four of the tanks in which height of the shell and the level of fluid is the same, the variation of... 

In the Endurance Time (ET) method, structures are subjected to a calibrated intensifying accelerogram and their performance is assessed based on their response at various equivalent intensity levels. Application of the ET method in performance-based design of structures has been studied by introducing a continuous performance target curve, which expresses the limit of the proper seismic performance of a structure along various times of the ET accelerogram. The correlation between time in the ET method and the return period for different structural periods is investigated. The procedure is based on the coincidence of response spectra obtained from the ET accelerogram at different times and... 

In this paper, application of the Endurance Time (ET) method in the performance-based design of steel moment frames is explained from a conceptual viewpoint. ET is a new dynamic pushover procedure that predicts the seismic performance of structures by subjecting them to a gradually intensifying dynamic action and monitoring their performance at various excitation levels. Structural responses at different excitation levels are obtained in a single time-history analysis, thus significantly reducing the computational demand. Results from three analyses are averaged to reduce the random scattering of the results at each time step. A target performance curve is presented based on the required... 

The Endurance Time (ET) method is a time-history based dynamic pushover procedure in which structures are subjected to specially designed, intensifying accelerograms, and their seismic performance is judged based on the time duration needed to satisfy the required design objective. Second generation refers to ET acceleration functions that are generated by application of optimization techniques in order to produce response spectra compliant linearly intensifying accelerograms. In this paper, the major characteristics of a set of second generation ET acceleration functions (ETA20a01-3) are investigated. The template response spectra of this set of ET acceleration functions corresponds to the... 

A new design methodology based on the total value of structures is introduced. This methodology, namely Value Based Design of structures (VBD), uses the advantages of Endurance Time (ET) method. While prescriptive and earlier generations of performance based design approaches commonly try to find structures with the least initial cost, a design approach to directly incorporate the concept of value in design procedure has been formulated here. Reduced computational effort in ET analysis provides the prerequisites to practical use of optimization algorithms in seismic design. A genetic algorithm is used with the objective of minimizing total cost of the building during its lifespan. ET method... 

In Endurance Time (ET) method, structures are subjected to gradually intensifying accelerograms and their performance is judged based on the maximum time duration in which they can satisfy the predefined endurance criteria. Damage indexes are used in ET method as the endurance criteria. In this paper, correlation between the values of various damage indexes as obtained from nonlinear time-history analysis of steel moment frames subjected to scaled earthquakes are compared with those from ET method at the same level of spectral acceleration. It is shown that the average value of various damage indexes can be estimated from ET analysis results. Advantages, accuracy and limitations of this... 

In this paper, the application of Endurance Time (ET) method to the seismic analysis of bridges is elaborated. ET method is a novel seismic analysis method based on time history analysis in which a structure is subjected to a predefined intensifying acceleration function. First, six concrete bridges were modeled in this study. Three Endurance Time Acceleration Functions (ETAFs) were applied to the models, and the average of responses was calculated. Next, the time history analysis was conducted using seven real accelerograms that are scaled using the method recommended by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to be compatible with the design spectrum of American Association of State Highway... 

The Endurance Time (ET) method is a time-history based dynamic pushover procedure for seismic analysis and design of structures. In this procedure, structures are subjected to a specially designed intensifying accelerogram and their Endurance Time is measured based on the time interval during which they can resist the imposed dynamic actions. In this paper, application of the ET method in linear seismic analysis of structures has been investigated. The procedure for generating code compliant uniformly intensifying ET accelerograms has been explained. A set of three such accelerograms have been applied to various moment and braced steel frames and the results of analysis are compared to... 

The presented paper deals with the parametric instability behavior of a simply supported rectangular plate with a crack emanating from one edge, subjected to in-plane compressive periodic edge loading. The problem is reduced to computing the free vibration frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes and substituting them into an integral equation based formula, which leads to a compact matrix form. Once the components of this matrix are found, the rest of the computation, i.e., establishing regions of instability, buckling loads and modified frequencies, is straightforward and fast. Several plates, each with a different dimension and crack length size are analyzed using this approach. The... 

The vibration, buckling and parametric instability behavior of a simply supported rectangular plate with a crack emanating from one edge, subjected to in-plane compressive periodic edge loading is studied in this paper. Several plates, each with a different dimension and crack length size are analyzed using an analytical approach. The results of this study show that the vibration, buckling and parametric instability behavior of plates with length to width ratio greater than unity are considerably affected by the crack length size  

Prefabricated funicular shells were constructed using a stretched membrane as a mould. Forty-five shells with various rises and different types of reinforcement were loaded to failure and their behaviour in the elastic and non-linear range was investigated. The experimental values of membrane and bending stresses in the elastic range along diagonal sections of funicular shells subjected to uniform loading were calculated and compared with the results of numerical analysis. The results are generally found to be in close agreement with theory. Experimental values of vertical deflections along the longitudinal and transverse sections of the shells also compare favourably with the theory. The... 

The aim of this study is to develop a new simulation procedure of endurance time excitations in which hysteretic energy compatibility is included. Existing methods for simulating excitations consider only amplitude and frequency content of motions and disregard parameters related to cumulative damage of structures. Hysteretic energy consistency, as a cumulative damage-related parameter, is included in the process. The proposed method is applied to generate new excitations. Efficiency of the proposed method is examined in two ways: (1) comparing damage spectra of simulated excitations with recorded ground motions; (2) applying simulated excitations in seismic assessment of three concrete... 

Endurance Time (ET) method is a new dynamic analysis procedure that aims at estimating seismic performance of structures by subjecting them to predesigned intensifying acceleration. These acceleration functions are designed in a way that they approximately simulate earthquakes with different intensities through their duration. Performance of the structure is judged based on its behavior for different intensity measures through time. A set of three acceleration functions have been produced using the ET concept by applying optimization techniques. These acceleration functions are designed in such a way that their response spectrum, while complying with typical code design spectra, intensify... 

An integrated probabilistic framework is proposed with a set of probabilistic models that are compatible with the reliability methods used in resilience-based design (RBD). Previous seismic resilience estimation frameworks primarily have used conditional probabilities and total probability integration to compute the expected seismic resilience index while considering the effects of only a few types of uncertainty. However, a high level of uncertainty is associated with seismic resilience estimation. This study presents a probabilistic framework and models that can consider the effect of unlimited uncertainties when calculating the probability distribution of the seismic resilience index for... 

Aseismic base isolation is an effective method used to protect structures and their contents against earthquakes. An isolated structure may be designed to remain elastic throughout major ground motions as a result of the efficiency of the isolation systems. In this paper, the equations of motion of two-dimensional elastic structures supported on a new base isolation system called the Sliding Concave Foundation (SCF) are presented and a procedure for their solution is suggested. The responses of a number of structures subjected to different earthquake records are evaluated and the results are compared with those of the same structures supported on two other famous isolation systems and also a...