Dynamic loading tests and seismic response analysis of a stud-type damper composed of multiple friction units with disc springs

This paper presents an experimental study on the performance of a shear-sliding stud-type damper composed of multiple friction units with high-tension bolts and disc springs. A numerical evaluation of the response reduction effects achieved by the stud-type damper is also presented. In dynamic loading tests, the behavior of stud-type multiunit friction damper specimens was investigated. Three different full-scale damper specimens, which were composed of five, six, or seven friction units with two or four sliding surfaces, were incorporated into loading devices for testing. The stud-type friction dampers demonstrated stable rigid-plastic hysteresis loops without any remarkable decrease in the sliding force even when subjected to repetitive loading, in addition to showing no unstable behavior such as lateral buckling. The damper produced a total sliding force approximately proportional to the number of sliding surfaces and friction units. The total sliding force of the stud-type damper can thus be estimated by summing the contributions of each friction unit. In an earthquake response simulation, the control effects achieved by stud-type dampers incorporated into an analytical high-rise building model under various input waves, including long-period, long-duration and pulse-like ground motions, were evaluated. A satisfactory response reduction was obtained by installing the developed stud-type dampers into the main frame without negatively impacting usability and convenience in terms of building planning.     

The shape of the seismic response interaction diagram: The effect of combination rules in response spectrum analysis

This paper deals with the construction of seismic response interaction diagrams that show the correlation of multiple responses and are important to determine the critical combination of modal responses. Many design problems, such as column design under combined axial force and bending moments, fall into this category. We address general modal and multicomponent combination rules and study their effect on the shape of the response interaction diagrams, thus extending previous work done for quadratic combination rules. Special attention is given to multilinear combination rules which lead to polyhedral shapes. Having developed efficient methods to deal with polyhedral shapes, we explore the idea of adopting a multilinear modal combination rule to compose with a multicomponent percentage rule.     

Discussion of user-defined parameters for recursive subspace identification: Application to seismic response of building structures

Structural damage assessment under external loading, such as earthquake excitation, is an important issue in structural safety evaluation. In this regard, an appropriate data analysis and system identification technique is required to interpret the measured data and to identify the state of the structure. Generally, the recursive system identification algorithm is used. In this study, the recursive subspace identification (RSI) algorithm based on the matrix inversion lemma algorithm with oblique projection technique (RSI-Inversion-Oblique) is applied to investigate the time-varying dynamic characteristics. The user-defined parameters used in the RSI-Inversion-Oblique technique are carefully discussed, which include the size of the data Hankel matrix (i), model order to extract the physical modes, and forgetting factor (FF) to detect the time-varying system modal frequencies. Response data from the Northridge earthquake from the Sherman Oaks building (CSMIP) is used as an example to examine a systematic method to determine the suitable user-defined parameters in RSI. It is concluded that the number of rows in the data Hankel matrix significantly influences the identification of the time-varying fundamental modal frequency of the structure. An algorithmic model order selection method using the eigenvalue distribution of RSI-Inversion can detect the system modal frequencies at each appending data window without causing any abnormality.     

Forests and floods: Using field evidence to reconcile analysis methods

The extent to which forests, relative to shorter vegetation, mitigate flood peak discharges remains controversial and relatively poorly researched, with only a few significant field studies. Considering the effect purely of change of vegetation cover, peak flow magnitude comparisons for paired catchments have suggested that forests do not mitigate large floods, whereas flood frequency comparisons have shown that forests mitigate frequencies over all magnitudes of flood. This study investigates the apparent inconsistency using field-based evidence from four contrasting field programmes at scales of 0.34–3.1 km². Repeated patterns are identified that provide strong evidence of real effects with physical explanations. Magnitude and frequency comparisons are both relevant to the impact of forests on peak discharges but address different questions. Both can show a convergence of response between forested and grassland/logged states at the highest recorded flows but the associated return periods may be quite variable and are subject to estimation uncertainty. For low to moderate events, the forested catchments have a lower peak magnitude for a given frequency than the grassland/logged catchments. Depending on antecedent soil saturation, a given storm may nevertheless generate peak discharges of the same magnitude for both catchment states but these peaks will have different return periods. The effect purely of change in vegetation cover may be modified by additional forestry interventions, such as road networks and drainage ditches which, by effectively increasing the drainage density, may increase peak flows for all event magnitudes. For all the sites, forest cover substantially reduces annual runoff.     

Event-based classification for global study of river flood generating processes

Better understanding of which processes generate floods in a catchment can improve flood frequency analysis and potentially climate change impacts assessment. However, current flood classification methods are either not transferable across locations or do not provide event-based information. We therefore developed a location-independent, event-based flood classification methodology that is applicable in different climates and returns a classification of all flood events, including extreme ones. We use precipitation time series and very simply modelled soil moisture and snowmelt as inputs for a decision tree. A total of 113,635 events in 4155 catchments worldwide were classified into one of five hydro-climatological flood generating processes: short rain, long rain, excess rainfall, snowmelt and a combination of rain and snow. The new classification was tested for its robustness and evaluated with available information; these two tests are often lacking in current flood classification approaches. According to the evaluation, the classification is mostly successful and indicates excess rainfall as the most common dominant process. However, the dominant process is not very informative in most catchments, as there is a high at-site variability in flood generating processes. This is particularly relevant for the estimation of extreme floods which diverge from their usual flood generation pattern, especially in the United Kingdom, Northern France, Southeastern United States, and India.     

Application of a cascading filter implemented using morphological filtering and time–frequency peak filtering for seismic signal enhancement

Inspired by the idea of the iterative time–frequency peak filtering, which applies time–frequency peak filtering several times to improve the ability of random noise reduction, this article proposes a new cascading filter implemented using mathematic morphological filtering and the time–frequency peak filtering, which we call here morphological time–frequency peak filtering for convenience. This new method will be used mainly for seismic signal enhancement and random noise reduction in which the advantages of the morphological algorithm in processing nonlinear signals and the time–frequency peak filtering in processing nonstationary signals are utilized. Structurally, the scheme of the proposed method adopts mathematic morphological operation to first preprocess the signal and then applies the time–frequency peak filtering method to ultimately extract the valid signal. Through experiments on synthetic seismic signals and field seismic data, this paper demonstrates that the morphological time–frequency peak filtering method is superior to the time–frequency peak filtering method and its iterative form in terms of valid signal enhancement and random noise reduction.     

基于小波变换的地震动时-频特性研究

对美国NGA,采用一维连续小波变换得到每条记录的小波功率谱。研究了任意时间处小波功率谱最大值所对应的主频率。结果表明:地震动主频率随时间的增大逐渐减小;竖向地震动分量的主频比水平向分量随时间减小更快。分别采用线性函数模型、指数函数模型和指数三角函数模型,分析了场地、震级和震中距对主频变化曲线的影响,拟合了主频率在不同场地条件、震级、震中距等情况下随时间的变化曲线,水平向和竖向的频率时变曲线整体上都是随时间递减的,且竖向衰减得更快些,大多数情况下竖向记录的高频成分比水平向记录的相应成分要多。     

基于类柔度差曲率和频率摄动的结构损伤识别

为提高梁式结构损伤诊断的效率,提出一种基于类柔度差曲率和频率摄动的结构损伤识别方法。首先根据结构振动理论,研究广义柔度矩阵计算公式;再利用模态柔度对结构损伤灵敏性高的优点,改进基于柔度差曲率的损伤定位指标,定义类柔度差曲率LCFC损伤指标,并初步识别损伤;最后基于矩阵摄动进行结构损伤识别结果确认。考虑多种损伤工况,对一简支梁结构进行损伤识别数值模拟验证。结果表明:仅使用一阶模态,建立的类柔度差曲率LCFC指标对梁式结构损伤定位具有良好的诊断效果,且计算工作量小;对于含边界损伤单元的多损伤工况,当损伤程度大于10%时,LCFC指标识别有效;当损伤程度不大于25%时,各工况二阶摄动识别结果精度较高,相对误差较一阶摄动结果明显降低,证明了该方法的实用性、有效性和精确性。     

Nonlinear dynamic tests of a reinforced concrete frame building at different damage levels

This paper discusses the dynamic tests of a two-story infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame building using an eccentric-mass shaker. The building, located in El Centro, CA, was substantially damaged prior to the tests due to the seismic activity in the area. During the testing sequence, five infill walls were removed to introduce additional damage states and to investigate the changes in the dynamic properties and the nonlinear response of the building to the induced excitations. The accelerations and displacements of the structure under the forced and ambient vibrations were recorded through an array of sensors, while lidar scans were obtained to document the damage. The test data provide insight into the nonlinear response of an actual building and the change of its resonant frequencies and operational shapes due to varying damage levels and changes of the excitation amplitude, frequency, and orientation.     

连续弯箱梁自行车桥地震响应分析

为研究厦门市弯箱梁自行车桥的地震响应规律,采用SAP2000有限元软件建立自行车高架桥三维壳体模型,在考虑多遇地震和罕遇地震水准作用及不同加载方向的基础上,分别采用反应谱分析法和时程分析法进行该桥的动力响应分析。结果表明：自行车桥z方向位移分量最大,且z方向分量极值均发生在曲线分叉段;相对剪力而言,桥墩竖向支反力相对较小;E1和E2地震水准响应情况随时间的变化趋势基本一致,桥梁结构未进入塑形状态,抗震性能良好,安全性指标较高;反应谱法计算得到的响应包络值相对3条不同的地震时程结果的峰值大,在实际桥梁抗震分析过程中需要综合考虑两者的分析结果。文章研究结果对今后自行车桥设计和抗震性能分析具有指导意义,并可为研究者对该类桥的进一步研究提供借鉴。