Modelling damage potential of high‐frequency ground motions

Damage to building structures due to underground blast‐induced ground motions is a primary concern in the corresponding determination of the safe inhabited building distance (IBD). Because of the high‐frequency nature of this category of ground motions and especially the presence of significant vertical component, the characteristics of structural response and damage differ from those under seismic type low‐frequency ground motions. This paper presents a numerical investigation aimed at evaluating reinforced concrete (RC) structure damage generated by underground blast‐induced ground excitation. In the numerical model, two damage indices are proposed to model reinforced concrete failure. A fracture indicator is defined to track the cracking status of concrete from micro‐ to macrolevel; the development of a plastic hinge due to reinforcement yielding is monitored by a plastic indicator; while the global damage of the entire structure is correlated to structural stiffness degradation represented by its natural frequency reduction. The proposed damage indices are calibrated by a shaking table test on a 1: 5‐scale frame model. They are then applied to analyse the structural damage to typical low‐ to high‐rise RC frames under blast‐induced ground motions. Results demonstrate a distinctive pattern of structural damage and it is shown that the conventional damage assessment methods adopted in seismic analysis are not applicable here. It is also found that the existing code regulation on allowable peak particle velocity of blast‐induced ground motions concerning major structural damage is very conservative for modern RC structures. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The high‐frequency limit of usable response spectral ordinates from filtered analogue and digital strong‐motion accelerograms

The range of response frequencies for which spectral ordinates obtained from accelerograms may be considered reliable is limited by several factors, primary among them being the effects of filters that are routinely applied to remove noise from the records. Considerable attention has been focused on the low‐frequency limit of the usable spectral ordinates because of various engineering applications requiring long‐period spectral accelerations or displacements but only recently have rational approaches to selecting the high‐frequency limit been proposed. Since there are applications for which the high‐frequency spectral ordinates are important, the approaches to this issue presented in the recent studies are reviewed and their application to the ground‐motion database from Europe and the Middle East is explored. On the basis of the results of these analyses, it is concluded that a large proportion of this dataset can be used to provide reliable estimates of response spectral ordinates at much shorter periods than may have previously been considered feasible. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of time‐varying frequency content in earthquake ground motions on seismic response of linear elastic systems

Earthquake ground motion records are nonstationary in both amplitude and frequency content. However, the latter nonstationarity is typically neglected mainly for the sake of mathematical simplicity. To study the stochastic effects of the time‐varying frequency content of earthquake ground motions on the seismic response of structural systems, a pair of closely related stochastic ground motion models is adopted here. The first model (referred to as ground motion model I) corresponds to a fully nonstationary stochastic earthquake ground motion model previously developed by the authors. The second model (referred to as ground motion model II) is nonstationary in amplitude only and is derived from the first model. Ground motion models I and II have the same mean‐square function and global frequency content but different features of time variation in the frequency content, in that no time variation of the frequency content exists in ground motion model II. New explicit closed‐form solutions are derived for the response of linear elastic SDOF and MDOF systems subjected to stochastic ground motion model II. New analytical solutions for the evolutionary cross‐correlation and cross‐PSD functions between the ground motion input and the structural response are also derived for linear systems subjected to ground motion model I. Comparative analytical results are presented to quantify the effects of the time‐varying frequency content of earthquake ground motions on the structural response of linear elastic systems. It is found that the time‐varying frequency content in the seismic input can have significant effects on the stochastic properties of system response. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tests on low‐ductility RC frames under high‐ and low‐frequency excitations

The response of low‐ductility reinforced concrete (RC) frames, designed typically for a non‐seismic region, subjected to two frequencies of base excitations is studied. Five half‐scaled, two‐bay, two‐storey, RC frames, each approximately 5 m wide by 3.3 m high, were subjected to both horizontal and/or vertical base excitations with a frequency of 40 Hz as well as a lower frequency of about 4 Hz (close to the fundamental frequency) using a shake table. The imposed acceleration amplitude ranged from 0.2 to 1.2g. The test results showed that the response characteristics of the structures differed under high‐ and low‐frequency excitations. The frames were able to sustain high‐frequency excitations without damage but were inadequate for low‐frequency excitations, even though the frames exhibited some ductility. Linear‐elastic time‐history analysis can predict reasonably well the structural response under high‐frequency excitations. As the frames were not designed for seismic loads, the reinforcement detailing may not have been adequate, based on the crack pattern observed. The effect of vertical excitation can cause significant additional forces in the columns and moment reversals in the beams. The ‘strong‐column, weak‐beam’ approach for lateral load RC frame design is supported by experimental observations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the inelastic seismic response of asymmetric buildings under bi‐axial excitation

The elastic and inelastic seismic response of plan‐asymmetric regular multi‐storey steel‐frame buildings has been investigated under bi‐directional horizontal ground motions. Symmetric variants of these buildings were designed according to Eurocodes 3 and 8. Asymmetric buildings were created by assuming a mass eccentricity in each of the two principal directions. The torsional response in the elastic and inelastic range is qualitatively similar with the exception of the stiff edge in the strong direction of torsionally stiff buildings and the stiff edge in the weak direction of torsionally flexible buildings. The response is influenced by the intensity of ground motion, i.e. by the magnitude of plastic deformation. In the limiting case of very strong ground motion, the behaviour of initially torsionally stiff and initially torsionally flexible buildings may become qualitatively similar. A decrease in stiffness due to plastic deformations in one direction may substantially influence the behaviour in the orthogonal direction. The response strongly depends on the detailed characteristics of the ground motion. On average, torsional effects are reduced with increasing plastic deformations, unless the plastic deformations are small. Taking into account also the dispersion of results which is generally larger in the inelastic range than in the elastic one, it can be concluded that (a) the amplification of displacements determined by the elastic analysis can be used as a rough estimate also in the inelastic range and (b) any favourable torsional effect on the stiff side of torsionally stiff buildings, which may arise from elastic analysis, may disappear in the inelastic range. The conclusions are limited to fairly regular buildings and subject to further investigations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Out‐of‐plane behaviour of a full scale stone masonry façade. Part 1: specimen and ground motion selection

The out‐of‐plane response of walls in existing stone masonry buildings is one of the major causes of vulnerability commonly observed in post‐earthquake damage surveys. In this context, a shaking table (ST) test campaign was carried out on a full‐scale masonry façade mainly focusing on the characterization of its out‐of‐plane overturning behaviour. The structure tested on the ST is a partial reproduction of an existing building from Azores, damaged during the 9 July 1998 Faial earthquake. The definition of the tested specimen as well as the selection of the input ground motion is reported in this paper. A specific emphasis is given to the definition of the time‐history to be applied during the tests because it was felt as an essential and crucial part of the work to obtain the desired overturning behaviour. The accelerogram to be imposed was selected from a large set of accelerograms (74) by means of a step‐by‐step procedure on the basis of several numerical analyses resorting to the rocking response of rigid blocks. A companion paper (Part 2) focuses on the ST test results and detailed data interpretation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A frequency response function change method for damage localization and quantification in a shear building under ground excitation

A frequency response function change (FRFC) method to detect damage location and extent based on the change in the frequency response functions of a shear building under the effects of ground excitation was proposed in this paper. The damage identification equation was derived from the motion equations of the system before and after the occurrence of the damage. Efforts to make the FRFC method less model‐dependent were made. Intact system matrices, which could be estimated using the measured data without the need for an analytical model, and the frequency response functions were required for the FRFC method. The effects of measurement noise and model parameter error in the FRFC method were studied numerically. The proposed FRFC method was validated by experimental studies of a six‐story steel building structure with single and multiple damage cases. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic response of three‐dimensional r/c multi‐storey frame building under uni‐ and bi‐directional input ground motion

This paper deals with seismic analysis of plan‐asymmetric r/c frame multi‐storey buildings. Non‐linear numerical analyses are carried out by using a lumped plasticity model for beams and a multi‐spring model for columns, the latter one introduced to account for axial force–biaxial bending moment interaction. A comparison between numerical analyses and experimental test results is reported in order to calibrate the numerical model, showing that the adopted model is very suitable. In order to study the effects of the earthquake orthogonal component, the seismic response of the modelled structure under uni‐directional excitation is compared to the one under bi‐directional excitation. Such comparison shows that the maximum base shear and the top displacement are not very sensitive to the presence of the orthogonal component, which, conversely, leads to large increase in the column plastic excursions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Torsional response of symmetric buildings to incoherent and phase‐delayed earthquake ground motion

This paper studies the effect of coherency loss and wave passage on the seismic torsional response of three‐dimensional, multi‐storey, multi‐span, symmetric, linear elastic buildings. A model calibrated against statistical analyses of ground motion records in Mexico City is used for the coherency function. The structural response is assessed in terms of shear forces in structural elements. Incoherence and wave passage effects are found to be significant only for columns in the ground level of stiff systems. The increase of column shears in the ground level is much higher for soft than for firm soil conditions. For the torsionally stiff systems considered, it is found that incoherent and phase‐delayed ground motions do not induce a significant rotational response of the structure. The use of a code eccentricity to account for torsion due to ground motion spatial variation is assessed. On firm soil, the use of a base shear along with an accidental eccentricity results in highly overestimated shear forces; however, for soft soil conditions, code formulations may result in underestimated shear forces. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural performance assessment under near‐source pulse‐like ground motions using advanced ground motion intensity measures

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of utilizing advanced ground motion intensity measures (IMs) to evaluate the seismic performance of a structure subject to near‐source ground motions. Ordinary records are, in addition, utilized to demonstrate the robustness of the advanced IM with respect to record selection and scaling. To perform nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDAs), ground motions need to be selected; as a result, choosing records that are not representative of the site hazard can alter the seismic performance of structures. The median collapse capacity (in terms of IM), for example, can be systematically dictated by including a few aggressive or benign pulse‐like records into the record set used for analyses. In this paper, the elastic‐based IM such as the pseudo‐spectral acceleration (S_a) or a vector of S_a and epsilon has been demonstrated to be deficient to assess the structural responses subject to pulse‐like motions. Using advanced IMs can be, however, more accurate in terms of probabilistic response prediction. Scaling earthquake records using advanced IMs (e.g. inelastic spectral displacement, S_di, and IM _1I&2E; the latter is for the significant higher‐mode contribution structures) subject to ordinary and/or pulse‐like records is efficient, sufficient, and robust relative to record selection and scaling. As a result, detailed record selection is not necessary, and records with virtually any magnitude, distance, epsilon and pulse period can be selected for NDAs. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic capacity of retrofitted beam–column connections in high‐rise steel frames when subjected to long‐period ground motions

The seismic capacity of beam‐to‐column connections in steel high‐rise frames is a matter of concern, particularly when they are subjected to long‐period ground motions. A previous full‐scale shaking table test conducted at the E‐Defense National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention in Japan disclosed cracks and fractures in such beam‐to‐column connections. This paper examines the effects of three types of beam‐to‐column connection retrofit: supplemental welds, wing plates, and a haunch. Quasi‐static member tests and a series of shaking table tests applied to a full‐scale specimen are conducted to quantify the respective performances of the retrofit schemes. The performance of a total of 28 connections tested by the member and shaking table tests is evaluated together with that of an additional 12 unretrofitted connections tested in the previous test. When the supplemental welds are applied only to the shear tab to the web, the connection fractures at the same instant as the connection without retrofit. The corresponding cumulative plastic rotation is not improved. When the supplement welds are further applied to the web‐to‐column connection, strain concentration at the bottom flange, primarily promoted by the presence of the RC floor slab, is significantly reduced, and the cumulative plastic rotation capacity is increased to eight times that of the connection without retrofit. For the wing plate connection and haunch connection, the critical section is moved from the beam end to the beam cross‐section corresponding to the tip of the wing plates or haunch, resulting in an improvement of ductility by eight times that of the unretrofitted connection. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the inelastic torsional response of single‐storey structures under bi‐axial excitation

An attempt has been made to explore the general trends in the seismic response of plan‐asymmetric structures without any restrictions imposed by a particular code. Systems with structural elements in both orthogonal directions under bi‐directional excitation were studied. Idealized single‐storey models with bi‐axial eccentricity were employed. The systems were torsionally stiff and, in the majority of cases, mass‐eccentric. The main findings are: in general, inelastic torsional response is qualitatively similar to elastic torsional response. Quantitatively, the torsional effect on the flexible side, expressed as an increase of displacements due to torsion, decreases slightly with increasing plastic deformation, unless the plastic deformations are small. The response on the stiff side generally strongly depends on the effect of several modes of vibration and on the influence of the ground motion in the transverse direction. These influences depend on the structural and ground motion characteristics in both directions. Reduction of displacements due to torsion, typical for elastic torsionally stiff structures, usually decreases with increasing plastic deformations. As an additional effect of large plastic deformations, a flattening of the displacement envelopes in the horizontal plane usually occurs, indicating that torsional effects in the inelastic range are generally smaller than in the elastic range. The dispersion of the results of inelastic torsional response analysis is generally larger than that of elastic analysis. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing adequacy of spectrum‐matched ground motions for response history analysis

Response spectrum matching is commonly used to generate ground motions with response spectra matching a scenario target spectrum. There is some debate in the literature about whether spectrum‐matched motions lead to biased structural analysis results. Furthermore, there are no objective, quantitative criteria available for deciding whether a ground motion has been manipulated excessively by spectrum matching, and whether large modification may also lead to bias. This study investigates both of these issues by presenting the results of structural analysis using two reinforced concrete moment frame models and two earthquake scenarios, with suites of unmatched and matched ground motions. Through comparison with a robust benchmark, it is shown that no significant bias is introduced by spectrum matching. The period range and target damping values for matching are also investigated, and matching up to three times the fundamental period is shown to be beneficial in reducing dispersion in the results. Finally, these analyses were also used to investigate whether large changes in the ground motion lead to biased analysis results. Several potential measures of change are investigated, including those based on peak absolute ground motion, cumulative squared ground motion (absolute or normalized), and input energy into single‐degree‐of‐freedom systems. Although no systematic, statistically significant correlation is found for the analysis results in terms of any of these measures of change, tentative criteria are proposed, which may be used by analysts to aid in the decision of whether to accept or reject a spectrum‐matched motion. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonstationary frequency effect of the ground motion upon the strength levels of the shear type RC structures

In order to investigate the influence of nonstationary frequency content variations, nonlinear response analysis for origin-oriented type hysteretic model is carried out and results are presented by applying two different S_I and S_II ensembles with varied frequency contents. The theoretical background of strong motion simulation is explained briefly depending on frequency parameters of stiff soil data. Based on models and applying Monte-Carlo's simulation mean values and standard deviations of displacement ductility demands for both ensembles are calculated. Required strength levels are investigated in probabilistic sense adopting light and heavy (but controlled) damage criteria. It is concluded that the nonlinear behaviour of the structure is greatly influenced by the nonstationary frequency content deviations as being shown that larger strength requirements for the S_I type strong ground motion ensemble than the S_II, although both ensembles have almost the same acceleration response spectra.     

Near‐fault ground motions,and the response of elastic and inelastic single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) systems

In order to investigate the response of structures to near‐fault seismic excitations, the ground motion input should be properly characterized and parameterized in terms of simple, yet accurate and reliable, mathematical models whose input parameters have a clear physical interpretation and scale, to the extent possible, with earthquake magnitude. Such a mathematical model for the representation of the coherent (long‐period) ground motion components has been proposed by the authors in a previous study and is being exploited in this article for the investigation of the elastic and inelastic response of the single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) system to near‐fault seismic excitations. A parametric analysis of the dynamic response of the SDOF system as a function of the input parameters of the mathematical model is performed to gain insight regarding the near‐fault ground motion characteristics that significantly affect the elastic and inelastic structural performance. A parameter of the mathematical representation of near‐fault motions, referred to as ‘pulse duration’ (T_P), emerges as a key parameter of the problem under investigation. Specifically, T_P is employed to normalize the elastic and inelastic response spectra of actual near‐fault strong ground motion records. Such normalization makes feasible the specification of design spectra and reduction factors appropriate for near‐fault ground motions. The ‘pulse duration’ (T_P) is related to an important parameter of the rupture process referred to as ‘rise time’ (τ) which is controlled by the dimension of the sub‐events that compose the mainshock. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid platform for vibration control of high‐tech equipment in buildings subject to ground motion. Part 2: analysis

The experimental results of using a hybrid platform to mitigate vibration of a batch of high‐tech equipment installed in a building subject to nearby traffic‐induced ground motion have been presented and discussed in the companion paper. Based on the identified dynamic properties of both the building and the platform, this paper first establishes an analytical model for hybrid control of the building‐platform system subject to ground motion in terms of the absolute co‐ordinate to facilitate the absolute velocity feedback control strategy used in the experiment. The traffic‐induced ground motion used in the experiment is then employed as input to the analytical model to compute the dynamic response of the building‐platform system. The computed results are compared with the measured results, and the comparison is found to be satisfactory. Based on the verified analytical model, coupling effects between the building and platform are then investigated. A parametric study is finally conducted to further assess the performance of both passive and hybrid platforms at microvibration level. The analytical study shows that the dynamic interaction between the building and platform should be taken into consideration. The hybrid control is effective in reducing both velocity response and drift of the platform/high‐tech equipment at microvibration level with reasonable control force. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid platform for vibration control of high‐tech equipment in buildings subject to ground motion. Part 1: experiment

This paper presents an experimental study, while a companion paper addresses an analytical study, to explore the possibility of using a hybrid platform to mitigate vibration of a batch of high‐tech equipment installed in a building subject to nearby traffic‐induced ground motion. A three‐storey building model and a hybrid platform model are designed and manufactured. The hybrid platform is mounted on the building floor through passive mounts composed of leaf springs and oil dampers and controlled actively by an electromagnetic actuator with velocity feedback control strategy. The passive mounts are designed in such a way that the stiffness and damping ratio of the platform can be changed. A series of shaking table tests are then performed on the building model without the platform, with the passive platform of different parameters, and with the hybrid platform. The experimental results demonstrate that the hybrid platform is very effective in reducing the velocity response of a batch of high‐tech equipment in the building subject to nearby traffic‐induced ground motion if dynamic properties of the platform and control feedback gain are selected appropriately. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

电磁驱动AMD系统控制结构地震响应的振动台试验

本文在此前一系列有关新型电磁驱动AMD控制系统力学建模、性能试验和控制策略研究的基础上,进行了结构地震响应控制的小型振动台试验研究。首先,针对配置了电磁驱动AMD控制系统的Quanser标准两层剪切型框架结构模型,建立了无控计算模型,通过正弦扫频试验验证了模型参数,从而为结构振动主动控制试验研究提供了准确的被控对象模型;其次,设计了电磁驱动AMD控制系统基于极点配置控制算法的试验控制策略和状态观测器,通过数值分析验证了状态观测器估计结果的准确性;最后,在完成以上各项准备工作的基础上,分别对结构输入了典型Benchm ark标准地震动,进行振动台试验,试验结果表明电磁驱动AMD控制系统对结构的地震响应具有显著的控制效果,验证了该新型系统应用于结构振动控制的有效性和可行性。     

考虑场地类别和断层距的地震动及结构响应参数相关性分析

为了研究场地条件和断层距对地震动参数及其与结构响应参数相关性的影响,本文基于NGA数据库中5 266条水平分量地震动记录,采用皮尔森相关系数,分析了不同场地条件和断层距下地震动参数之间的相关性及其与结构响应参数的关系。结果表明,场地条件和断层距对绝大部分地震动参数相关性会产生明显影响,但存在一些参数的相关性几乎不受场地条件和断层距的影响;以四层钢筋混凝土框架结构为例,发现在不同场地条件和断层距下,结构响应参数与地震动参数的相关性变化明显,这表明在研究结构响应与地震动参数相关性时需要考虑场地条件与断层距的影响。     

Improved external device for a mass‐carrying sliding system for shaking table testing

Shaking tables are suitable facilities to assess and validate the behavior of structures and nonstructural components under actual seismic actions. Because of the size and weight limitations of the tables, some approaches, like testing reduced‐scale models or testing only the main structural components, are deemed necessary. In these cases, to comply with modeling requirements, large amount of extra‐mass should be added to the specimen. Therefore, to avoid the risk of lateral instability of models, to maintain the weight of test specimens within table payload, while maintaining the amount of mass needed, an external device for transmitting the inertia forces to the models using an improved sliding system is proposed. Although friction devices for similar purposes have been developed using sliding bearings (Teflon pads or rollers), the measured coefficient of dynamic friction and the energy dissipated by friction have been very high. In order to drastically diminish the damping added to the specimen response when a friction device is used, the improved device employs a linear motion guide system (LMGS) with very low friction. Shaking table tests to collapse of reinforced concrete walls were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed device. Measured dynamic friction coefficients, spectral accelerations and hysteresis loops show that friction developed in the LMGS did not add any significant amount of damping into the specimen response. Thus, the proposed device is a reliable and suitable mass‐carrying sliding system (MCSS) for dynamic testing using medium‐size shaking tables. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.