Period formulas of shear wall buildings with flexible bases

The evaluation of the fundamental period of shear wall buildings considering the flexibility of the base is investigated in this paper. This research is motivated by the discrepancy reported between the formulas used in different building codes and the measurement of real buildings. Both experimental and analytical approaches are used to assess the effect of the base flexibility on the fundamental period of shear wall structures. In total, twenty buildings built on different types of soil are tested under ambient vibration. The fundamental period is identified using a non‐parametric linear model in the frequency domain. The results show that fundamental period formulas used by UBC‐97 and NBCC‐95 are inadequate since they do not include the effect of the foundation stiffness. To improve the estimation of the fundamental period of shear wall buildings, an analytical approach is presented. The structure and the foundation are represented by a continuous‐discrete system. The stiffnesses of the base are represented by translational and rotational discrete springs. The rigidities of these springs are evaluated from the elastic uniform compression of the soil mass and the size of the foundation. The analytical predictions improve the estimation of the fundamental period and keep the computation simple. The error between the measured period and the analytical results is, on average, less than 10%. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Approximate modal decomposition of inelastic dynamic responses of wall buildings

Two approximate methods for decomposing complicated inelastic dynamic responses of wall buildings into simple modal responses are presented. Both methods are based on the equivalent linear concept, where a non‐linear structure is represented by a set of equivalent linear models. One linear model is used for representing only one vibration mode of the non‐linear structure, and its equivalent linear parameters are identified from the inelastic response time histories by using a numerical optimizer. Several theoretical relations essential for the modal decomposition are derived under the framework of complex modal analysis. Various numerical examinations have been carried out to check the validity of the proposed modal decomposition methods, and the results are quite satisfactory in all cases. Fluctuating bending moment and shear at any location along the wall height contributed by each individual vibration mode can be obtained. Modal contributions to shear and flexural strength demands, as well as the corresponding modal properties, under various seismic loading conditions can also be identified and examined in detail. Furthermore, the effects of higher vibration modes on seismic demands of wall buildings are investigated by using the modal decomposition methods. Several new insights into the complicated inelastic dynamics of multi‐story wall buildings are presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Proposal of a National Mitigation Strategy Against Earthquakes in Turkey

While laboratory and analytical studies can provide valuable information about earthquake hazard mitigation, the most effective educator is the impact of a full-scale earthquake on a full-scale city. The recent earthquakes in Turkey showed that the governmental as well as individual attitudes towards earthquakes did not represent proportionate responses to the risk levels concerned. Turkey had weaknesses in preparing, planning, mitigating and responding to disasters in spite of the known seismic vulnerability of the country. Many steps have been taken after 1999 earthquakes in Turkey, however, the preparations largely concentrate on the response and recovery phases and a fundamental step to reform the current disaster management system and steps to rehabilitate the vulnerable building stock has not been undertaken until today. This would involve changing the present laws and regulations and de-centralising the disaster management system. The aim of this paper is to propose a national mitigation strategy for Turkey for a time-frame of 10 years. The model proposed is a very comprehensive model for earthquake risk reduction in Turkey and within this context, the legislative and technical aspects of mitigation will be discussed in detail. Strategies for mitigating and retrofitting the existing building stock will also be proposed.     

Studies on wind environment around high buildings in urban areas

High buildings or architectural complex in urban areas remarkably distort the urban surface wind fields. As the air flow approaches,local strong wind may appear around the buildings. The strong wind makes the pedestrians on sidewalks, entrances and terrace very uncomfortable and causes the pedestrian level wind environment problem. In this studies, hot-wire wind measurement, wind scouring in wind tunnel and numerical computation were carried out to evaluate the wind environment of tall buildings in the prevailing flow conditions in Beijing areas. The results obtained by three techniques were compared and mutually verified. The conclusions drawn from three approaches agree with each other. Also the advantages and limitations of each method were analyzed. It is suggested that the combination of different techniques may produce better assessment of wind environment around high buildings.     

高建筑对周围建筑雷击保护距离的模拟

在已有先导连接参数化方案的基础上,选取近地面层为研究区域,保持方案中其他基本参量不变,通过改变闪电的空间形态,在同一建筑分布的背景下进行多次闪电模拟。研究多个建筑之间的屏蔽作用以及建筑雷击保护距离与建筑相关特征参数之间的关系,结果表明:高建筑对矮建筑具有屏蔽作用,并存在一个临界保护距离,当高、矮建筑高度分别为190 m和165 m,宽度均为20 m时,建筑之间的距离在12 m以内,矮建筑受高建筑完全保护不遭受雷击;建筑之间的距离超过12 m,矮建筑遭雷击次数明显增多。     

线图形简化与移位算子的协同方法

在地图综合过程中,线的图形简化和移位算子通常是分别执行的,图形简化和移位有时都会产生新的空间冲突。本文试图把这两种算子进行协同,避免在地图综合过程中进行空间冲突的多次探测,提高地图综合数据处理的效率。本文通过把线图形简化转换为线上的点移位,并构建邻近地图目标之间的移位传播路径,在考虑空间上下文关系和地图感受规则的前提下,使移位过程能考虑到线图形简化,并尽量保持有关地图目标的空间特征。最后,以道路和其周边的建筑物群为例,验证了该算法的有效性和可行性。     

一种新的窗户特征提取方法研究

在建筑物立面重建中,窗户提取、结构识别是学者们研究的热点。针对建筑物特征提取的应用需求,文中提出一种基于局部搜索算法——爬山法的窗户信息提取方法,介绍研究中采用的一些原理、方法,从而可以准确有效地从激光扫描数据中提取出建筑物的窗户信息。利用本方案对地面激光扫描系统获取的建筑物实验数据进行具体的处理,并给出可视化表达结果。     

按新旧规范设计的多层住宅砖房地震易损性的对比

本文采用概率方法借助于拉丁超立方采样技术和非线性地震反应时程分析对按现行规范设计的多层住宅砖房的地震易损性进行分析,并与按上一代规范设计的多层住宅砖房的地震易损性分析结果[1]进行了比较,为进一步研究这类结构的地震安全性、未来地震的损失预测以及防震减灾对策奠定基础。     

Geographies of energy transition: the case of high-performing commercial office space in the central business districts of Sydney and Melbourne,Australia

As a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement, Australia committed to reduce emissions significantly by 2030. In a country highly urbanised and dependent on fossil fuels as its primary energy source, one key avenue for meeting these commitments is energy transition in the built environment. Australia has emerged as a leader in the design and construction of high-performance buildings in the premium commercial office sector. In this paper, we address a significant gap in understanding the diverse mechanisms through which building energy transition is being constituted in this sector, focusing on Sydney and Melbourne. In the absence of substantive publicly available data, we draw on mixed methods comprising a database developed around high-performing CBD office buildings and qualitative interviews with a range of sectoral stakeholders. We characterise the building stock in each city, and document five trends constituting energy transitions. We demonstrate that building energy transitions are not only shaped purposefully by dominant governance regimes but also by opportunistic responses to specific material and commercial conditions and legacies in each city. Thus the urban built environment affords significant opportunity for energy transitions, but pathways towards such transitions are necessarily multiple and ultimately shaped by material as well as institutional geographies.     

An improved building detection approach using L-band POLSAR two-dimensional time-frequency decomposition over oriented built-up areas

The objective of this study is to efficiently extract detailed information about various man-made targets in oriented built-up areas using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POLSAR) images. This paper develops an improved approach for building detection by utilizing Two-Dimensional Time-Frequency (2-D TF) decomposition. This method performs outstandingly in distinguishing between man-made and natural targets based on the isotropic behaviors, frequency-sensitive responses, and scattering mechanisms of objects. The proposed method can preserve the spatial resolution and exploit the advantages of TF decomposition; specifically, the exact outlines of buildings can be effectively located, and more types of features (e.g., flat roofs, roads, and walls that are oblique to the radar illumination) can be distinguished from forests in complex built-up areas by 2-D TF decomposition. The coarser-resolution subaperture images that are produced in the azimuth direction, which correspond to different looking angles, are beneficial for detecting man-made structures with main scattering centers oriented at oblique angles with respect to the radar illumination. In the range direction, the obtained subaperture images, which correspond to various observation frequencies, can be helpful in distinguishing flat roofs and roads from forests. This method was successfully implemented to analyze both NASA/JPL L-band AIRSAR and L-band EMISAR data sets. The building detection results of the proposed method exhibit a significant improvement over those of other methods and reach an overall accuracy over 80%, with approximately 20% higher than the accuracies of K-means clustering and the entropy/alpha-Wishart classifier and approximately 10% higher than the accuracy of the support vector machine method. Moreover, building details can be precisely detected, obliquely oriented buildings can be identified, and the distinction between buildings and forests is significantly improved, as both visually and statistically indicated. This method is highly adaptable and has substantial application value.