Response of tall cantilever wall buildings to strong pulse type seismic excitation

This paper investigates the seismic response of tall cantilever wall buildings subjected to pulse type ground motion, with special focus on the relation between the characteristics of ground motion and the higher‐modes of response. Buildings 10, 20, and 40 stories high were designed such that inelastic deformation was concentrated at a single flexural plastic hinge at their base. Using nonlinear response history analysis, the buildings were subjected to near‐fault seismic ground motions and simple closed‐form pulses, which represented distinct pulses within the ground motions. Euler–Bernoulli beam models with lumped mass and lumped plasticity were used to model the buildings. The response of the buildings to the closed‐form pulses fairly matched that of the near‐fault records. Subsequently, a parametric study was conducted for the buildings subjected to three types of closed‐form pulses with a broad range of periods and amplitudes. The results of the parametric study demonstrate the importance of the ratio of the fundamental period of the structure to the period of the pulse to the excitation of higher modes. The study shows that if the modal response spectrum analysis approach is used — considering the first four modes with a uniform yield reduction factor for all modes, and with the square root of sum of squares modal combination rule — it significantly underestimates bending moment and shear force responses. A response spectrum analysis method that uses different yield reduction factors for the first and the higher modes is presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic behavior and modeling of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) walls

The steel reinforced concrete (SRC) wall consists of structural steel embedded at the boundary elements of a reinforced concrete (RC) wall. The use of SRC walls has gained popularity in the construction of high‐rise buildings because of their superior performance over conventional RC walls. This paper presents a series of quasi‐static tests used to examine the behavior of SRC walls subjected to high axial force and lateral cyclic loading. The SRC wall specimens showed increased flexural strength and deformation capacity relative to their RC wall counterpart. The flexural strength of SRC walls was found to increase with increasing area ratio of embedded structural steel, while the section type of embedded steel did not affect the wall's strength. The SRC walls under high axial force ratio had an ultimate lateral drift ratio of approximately 1.4%. In addition, a multi‐layer shell element model was developed for the SRC walls and was implemented in the OpenSees program. The numerical model was validated through comparison with the test data. The model was able to predict the lateral stiffness, strength and deformation capacities of SRC walls with a reasonable level of accuracy. Finally, a number of issues for the design of SRC walls are discussed, along with a collection and analysis of the test data, including (1) evaluation of flexural strength, (2) calculation of effective flexural stiffness, and (3) inelastic deformation capacity of SRC walls. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

地震波CT在混凝土防渗墙质量检测中的应用

本文给出了一个地震波CT技术检测混凝土防渗墙质量的实例,其检测结果和部分墙体的钻孔取芯、土工试验和注水试验进行了对比,结果表明地震波CT技术在检测混凝土防渗墙质量时快速无损,准确可靠,在防渗墙质量无损检测中有广阔的应用前景。      

Seismic pressures on rigid cantilever walls retaining elastic continuously non-homogeneous soil: An exact solution

The dynamic response of an elastic continuously nonhomogeneous soil layer over bedrock retained by a pair of rigid cantilever walls to a horizontal seismic motion and the associated seismic pressure acting on these walls are determined analytically–numerically. The soil non-homogeneity is described by a shear modulus increasing nonlinearly with depth. The problem is solved in the frequency domain under conditions of plane strain and its exact solution is obtained analytically. This is accomplished with the aid of Fourier series along the horizontal direction and solution of the resulting system of two ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients by the method of Frobenius in power series. Due to the complexity of the various analytical expressions, the final results are determined numerically. These results include seismic pressures, resultant horizontal forces and bending moments acting on the walls. The solution of the problem involving a single retaining wall can be obtained as a special case by assuming the distance between the two walls to be very large. Results are presented in terms of numerical values and graphs using suitable dimensionless quantities. The effect of soil non-homogeneity on the system response is assessed through comparisons for typical sets of the parameters involved.     

Centrifuge modelling of flexible retaining walls subjected to dynamic loading

This paper outlines the results of an experimental program carried out on centrifuge models of cantilevered and propped retaining walls embedded in saturated sand. The main aim of the paper is to investigate the dynamic response of these structures when the foundation soil is saturated by measuring the accelerations and pore pressures in the soil, displacements and bending moment of the walls. A comparison among tests with different geometrical configurations and relative density of the soil is presented. The centrifuge models were subjected to dynamic loading in the form of sinusoidal accelerations applied at the base of the models. This paper also presents data from pressure sensors used to measure total earth pressure on the walls. Furthermore, these results are compared with previous dynamic centrifuge tests on flexible retaining walls in dry sand.     

Out‐of‐plane seismic response of vertically spanning URM walls connected to flexible diaphragms

A simplified numerical model was used to investigate the out‐of‐plane seismic response of vertically spanning unreinforced masonry (URM) wall strips. The URM wall strips were assumed to span between two flexible diaphragms and to develop a horizontal crack above the wall mid‐height. Three degrees of freedom were used to accommodate the wall displacement at the crack height and at the diaphragm connections, and the wall dynamic stability was studied. The equations of dynamic motion were obtained using principles of rocking mechanics of rigid bodies, and the formulae were modified to include semi‐rigid wall behaviour. Parametric studies were conducted that included calculation of the wall response for different values of diaphragm stiffness, wall properties, applied overburden, wall geometry and earthquake ground motions. The results of the study suggest that stiffening the horizontal diaphragms of typical low‐rise URM buildings will amplify the out‐of‐plane acceleration demand imposed on the wall and especially on the wall–diaphragm connections. It was found that upper‐storey walls connected to two flexible diaphragms had reduced stability for applied earthquake accelerograms having dominant frequency content that was comparable with the frequency of the diaphragms. It was also found that the applied overburden reduced wall stability by reducing the allowable wall rotations. The results of this study suggest that the existing American Society of Civil Engineers recommendations for assessment of vertically spanning walls overestimate the stability of top‐storey walls in multi‐storey buildings in high‐seismic regions or for walls connected to larger period (less stiff) diaphragms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical model for the in‐plane seismic performance of cold‐formed steel‐framed gypsum partition walls

This paper proposes an experimentally verified procedure to analytically model cold‐formed steel‐framed gypsum nonstructural partition walls considering all the critical components. In this model, the nonlinear behaviors of the connections are represented by hysteretic load‐deformation springs, which have been calibrated using the component‐level experimental data. The studs and tracks are modeled adopting beam elements with their section properties accounting for nonlinear behavior. The gypsum boards are simulated by linear four‐node shell elements. The proposed procedure is implemented to generate the analytical models of three full‐scale partition wall specimens in the OpenSees platform. The specimens were tested as a part of the NEESR‐GC Project on Simulation of the Seismic Performance of Nonstructural Systems. Force‐displacement responses, cumulative dissipated energy, and damage mechanisms from the analytical simulation are compared to the experimental results. The comparison shows that the analytical model accurately predicts the trend of the response as well as the possible damage mechanisms. The procedure proposed here can be adopted in future studies by researchers and also engineers to assess the seismic performance of partition walls with various dimensions and construction details, especially where test data are not available. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dispersions for the pushover‐based risk assessment of reinforced concrete frames and cantilever walls

The paper presents the results of an investigation into the dispersion values, expressed in terms of limit‐state spectral accelerations, which could be used for the pushover‐based risk assessment of low‐height to mid‐height reinforced concrete frames and cantilever walls. The results of an extensive parametric study of a portfolio of test structures indicated that the dispersion values due to record‐to‐record variability and modelling uncertainty (β_LS,RU) are within the range from 0.3 to 0.55 for the near collapse limit state, and between 0.35 and 0.60 for the collapse limit state. The dispersions β_LS,RU proposed for the code‐conforming and the majority of old (non code‐conforming) frames are in between these values. On the other hand, the dispersions proposed for the old frames with a soft storey and an invariant plastic mechanism, and for the code‐conforming cantilever walls, are at the lower and upper bounds of the presented values, respectively. The structural parameters that influence these dispersions were identified, and the influence of different ground motion sets, and of the models used for the calculation of the rotation capacities of the columns, on the calculated fragility parameters was examined and quantified. The proposed dispersion values were employed in a practice‐oriented pushover‐based method for the estimation of failure probability for eight selected examples. The pushover‐based risk assessment method, although extremely simple and economical when compared with more rigorous probabilistic methods, was able to predict seismic risk with reasonable accuracy, thus showing it to be a practical tool for engineers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

核电工程双钢板混凝土组合剪力墙研究综述

双钢板混凝土组合剪力墙在核电工程中的应用已成为大势所趋,对核电工程的建设起到了推进作用。本文分析了核电工程双钢板混凝土组合剪力墙的发展背景,总结了国内外双钢板混凝土组合剪力墙的抗震性能在试验、数值模拟及理论分析等方面的研究现状,并且对核电工程双钢板混凝土组合剪力墙在世界各国的研究进行了总结,最后对双钢板混凝土组合剪力墙的研究提出了一些关键问题,并对下一步的研究工作进行了展望。     

以震源机制类型划分汶川、玉树地震构造块体归属

2001年11月14日昆仑山口7.8级地震、2008年3月21日于田7.1级和5月12日的汶川7.9级地震,全部发生在青藏高原中部,构成新的地震活动组.昆仑山口和汶川地震分别位于巴颜喀拉活动地块的北部和东部边界,于田地震发生在该地块的西端.GPS的观测资料分析表明该块体整体向东运动.发生在块体不同部位的昆仑山口、于田和汶川3次大地震震源机制类型体现了巴颜喀拉块体活动力学的一致性.汶川主震和强余震发生之前,出现于田序列余震的强度和频度显著增高,进一步证实同一活动地块地震之间的内在联系.2010年4月14日玉树发生6.9 级地震,连同1996年11月19日的喀喇昆仑山口6.9 级地震和1997年11月18日玛尼7.5级地震,都发生在巴颜喀拉活动地块的南部边界上,震源机制表现为一致的左旋走向滑动,证实它们属于羌塘块体向东运动的结果.事实表明活动块体具有整体运动的性质,而整体运动也是两组各自3次大地震成组活动的原因.