Seismic Demand Research Articles

A hybrid approach for seismic fragility analysis of reinforced concrete structural walls independent of failure pattern

Establishing seismic fragility relationships of reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls plays an important role in the seismic risk and resilience assessment of RC structures. However, RC structural walls have different failure patterns under earthquake excitations, and different analytical models are commonly required to simulate the seismic responses of RC structural walls with different failure patterns. This brings to the difficulty of seismic fragility analysis for a wide variety of RC structural walls due to the failure-pattern-dependence. To overcome this shortcoming, a hybrid approach was developed in this study to establish the seismic fragility relationships of RC structural walls independent of failure patterns by combing experimental data and numerical simulation. The experimental data was collected from past quasi-static tests of RC structural walls having different failure patterns. The Bouc-Wen-Baber Noori (BWBN) model was used to describe the complicated hysteretic behaviors of RC structural walls under different failure patterns, whose model parameters were calibrated using the collected experimental data. Based on the calibrated BWBN models, an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (ESDOF) system was employed to predict the seismic demand of RC structural walls. Furthermore, the predicted seismic demand of RC structural walls was compared with the seismic capacity that was both identified from the collected experimental data, developing the seismic fragility relationships of RC structural walls independent of failure pattern. For facilitating the application in practice, artificial neural network (ANN) models are finally developed to predict model parameters of the cumulative lognormal distribution for generating the seismic fragility relationships of RC structural walls rapidly. The investigation indicated that the proposed approach provides a promising way to perform the seismic fragility analysis for a wide variety of RC structural walls.

Study of seismic vulnerability of steel frame structures on soft ground considering group effect

Earthquakes have caused increasingly severe casualties and economic losses in coastal urban areas where soft soils are widely distributed. To mitigate disaster losses, this paper aims to investigate the mechanism of the group effect, the interaction between a group of buildings (at least three) through the foundation, on seismic vulnerability in coastal urban areas. Firstly, the analysis models are established, and the validity is subsequently verified. Meanwhile, a self-built automatic iterative calculation program for multilayer soils is adopted to consider the nonlinearity of the soft soils. On this basis, probabilistic seismic demand analyses are further performed using ten earthquake ground motions. The seismic vulnerability formulas of the structures are obtained in combination with the probabilistic seismic demand models. Finally, the influence of the group effect on the seismic performance of the structures is evaluated from different perspectives based on the vulnerability formulas. The results indicate that the group effect of the steel frame structures makes the performance margin ratio (PMR) significantly higher and reduces the seismic vulnerability of the structures in coastal urban areas. The mechanism revealed in this paper presents a more accurate way to conduct earthquake-resistant design, provides guidelines for setting the criteria, and is likewise instructive to the seismic design of other structural forms.

Seismic Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Bridge and Control Measures for Seismic Pounding

India has had a variety of the world’s greatest earthquakes within the last century. In fact, quite one half area within the country is taken into account vulnerable to damaging earthquakes. The seismic building design code in India (IS 1893, Part-I) is additionally revised in 2002. The magnitudes of the look seismic forces are considerably enhanced generally, and also the seismic zonation of some regions has also been upgraded. There are many literature (e.g., IITM-SERC Manual, 2005) available that presents step-by- step procedures to gauge multi-storeyed buildings. The attention for existing bridges is relatively less. However, bridges are important components of transportation network in any country. The bridge design codes, in India, don’t have any seismic design provision at this time. A outsized number of bridges are designed and constructed without considering seismic forces. Therefore, it is important to gauge the capacity of existing bridges against seismic force demand. There are presently no comprehensive guidelines to help the practicing structural engineer to gauge existing bridges and suggest design and retrofit schemes. So as handle this this problem, this work aims to hold out a seismic evaluation case study for an existing RC bridge using nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. Nonlinear static (pushover) analysis as per FEMA 356 isn’t compatible for bridge structures. So, within the present study an improved pushover analysis is additionally won’t to verify the results.

Nonlinear Dynamic Analyses Utilising Macro-Models of Reinforced Concrete Building Structures and Site-Specific Accelerograms

This paper aims to guide structural engineers on how to apply the rapid nonlinear time history analysis (RNLTHA) procedure effectively to predict seismic demand, taking into account ductility and overstrength, and effects of dynamic phenomena including cyclic degradation of strength and stiffness in structures, in a direct and expedient manner. The shortcoming of the conventional force-based approach of design involving the use of a force reduction factor to account for nonlinear effects is well recognised. Nonlinear static (pushover) analysis and dynamic nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) are offered as alternative methods of analysis by major codes of practices to achieve better optimisation in the use of materials. NLTHA has advantages over pushover analysis in being more direct and capable of capturing cyclic response behaviour. Despite the merits of NLTHA, its adoption in the industry has been limited, mainly because of the complexity and the higher analysis cost involved. RNLTHA proposed in this article uses a macroscopic model of the building to fulfil the purpose of NLTHA, whilst saving computational time and achieving a good degree of accuracy, as verified by comparison with results generated from SeismoStruct.

Seismic Risk Analysis of Subway Station Structures Combining the Epistemic Uncertainties from Both Seismic Hazard and Numerical Simulation

ABSTRACT To consider the influence of epistemic uncertainties in both seismic hazard and numerical simulation on seismic risk of subway station structures, the uncertainties mentioned above are uniformly characterized as the epistemic uncertainty of seismic demand of subway station structures from the perspective of uncertainty propagation in this paper. On this basis, the analytical formulations of seismic risk considering simultaneous aleatory and epistemic uncertainties are derived. The validity of the derived analytical formulations is verified by the Monte Carlo simulation and the influences of epistemic uncertainty on the seismic risk of subway station structure are further discussed.

Effects of the extended N2 method on non-linear static procedures of reinforced concrete frame structures

This paper intends to contribute to the validation of the extended N2 nonlinear static method of seismic analysis through the study of two existing reinforced concrete frames. The scope is to further investigate the limitations of the original N2 method in predicting the seismic response of plan asymmetric buildings and to assess the higher accuracy of the extended N2 method. The two case study buildings are representative of the Italian construction between the ’70s and ’90s. One is designed for gravity loads only, the other is designed according to an old seismic code. Two modelling strategies are used, one with distributed and the other with lumped plastic hinges. Three eccentricities eCM between centre of mass and plan geometric centre are considered (eCM = 0%, 5% and 15%). The pushover analyses are carried out following the N2 method, the N2 method plus the 100:30 directional combination rule and the extended N2 method. The results are compared with those obtained from nonlinear history analyses. For each building the seismic demand is assessed for three hazard levels. The results indicate that the application of the extended N2 method significantly enhances the shape of the demand prediction, particularly for buildings with higher plan eccentricities. On the other hand, the directional combination does not significantly change the results and should be neglected.

Soil–Structure Interaction Effects on a Regional Scale through Ground-Motion Simulations and Reduced Order Models: A Case Study from the 2008 Mw 5.4 Chino Hills Mainshock

ABSTRACT We demonstrate the effects of soil–structure interaction (SSI) for three idealized building typologies on a regional scale, using a simulated earthquake scenario of the 2008 Mw 5.4 Chino Hills mainshock in southern California as an example. All the three buildings lie on shallow foundations, and they are subject to three-component simulated ground motions. To carry out this task, we develop a reduced order model (ROM) for each building typology that accounts for the effects of SSI on the building system in the time domain. We specifically use ensemble Kalman inversion (EnKI) to extract the soil impedance values from fully coupled soil–foundation–structure interaction simulations; and we interpolate the EnKI results to derive analytical functions that span the range of applicability of the soil impedance model. We then verify our ROMs by comparing results to fully coupled soil–foundation–structure interaction simulations, also known as direct modeling methods. We finally populate the simulation grid across southern California with the verified building ROMs, and interpret the responses in the form of maps that represent urban-scale effects of SSI on the seismic demand parameters such as maximum displacement, acceleration, and interstory drift. We also identify areas where the effects of SSI, given the resonant characteristics of a specific building, the foundation typology, and the local site conditions, lead to higher seismic demand relative to the fixed-base response.

Effects of RC ties on seismic performance improvement of confined masonry walls under combined in-plane, out-of-plane, and vertical loads

This study aimed at understanding the role of vertical RC ties in the seismic performance improvement of confined masonry walls under combined in-plane, out-of-plane, and vertical loads through nonlinear static analysis. For this purpose, finite element models were developed using simplified micro modelling method which were verified against the experimental results. Then, parametric studies were carried out to evaluate the response sensitivity of the masonry walls to the interaction of in-plane, out-of-plane, and vertical seismic demands. Two sets of wall models were considered; one without RC vertical ties (URM) and the other with these structural members (CM). Two ratios of height-to-length for the walls and five levels of vertical loads (representing resultant forces from dead, live, and vertical ground motion component loads) were considered. The loading was applied according to two protocols; (1) applying vertical loads prior to the application of in-plane displacement, and (2) applying out-of-plane uniform pressure after employing three different levels of vertical loads and then two different levels of in-plane displacements. It was found out that the in-plane strength of CM walls, in the worst case, changed –22% and 0% under 1 g of upward and downward vertical ground motion acceleration, respectively with respect to the wall under gravity loads only; whereas, this change for the corresponding URM walls is −100% and + 43%, respectively. The sensitivity of out-of-plane strength of CM walls to prior in-plane and vertical ground motion acceleration in the worst case was also found marginal; with −17% to −1% change under 1 g of upward and downward vertical ground motion acceleration, respectively. The change for the corresponding URM walls was −100% and −27%, respectively.

The Effect of Magnitude Mw and Distance Rrup on the Fragility Assessment of a Multistory RC Frame Due to Earthquake-Induced Structural Pounding

The effect of an intensity measure’s (IM’s) sufficiency property on the probabilistic assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) structures due to floor-to-floor structural pounding conditions is examined. In the first part of this investigation, efficiency and sufficiency properties of 23 scalar IMs are verified. Then, the magnitude Mw and the distance Rrup are examined as elements in a vector with an efficient scalar IM to evaluate whether they have any significant effect on the structural response. Subsequently, probabilistic seismic demand models (PSDMs) are developed using linear regression analyses based on a scalar IM and a vector-valued IM. Fragility curves are developed based on these PSDMs, and the influence of Mw and Rrup on the evaluation of the minimum required separation gap distance dg,min due to the pounding effect is examined. More than two hundred nonlinear time history analyses are performed based on the Cloud Analysis method. Seismic displacement demands that control of the global state of the structure, as well as the probability of structural pounding, are examined. The results of this research indicate that once Mw or Rrup is increased, fragility curves are shifted to greater values of IM, and the probability of the exceedance of a certain performance level is reduced. Also, the predictive power of Rrup seems to be greater than the one of Mw. On the other hand, it is revealed that Mw and Rrup induce variabilities in the demand solutions for adequate separation gap distance between the adjacent structures. Therefore, variation in Mw or Rrup may lead, in some cases, to unacceptable evaluations of the pounding effect in the capacity levels of structures.

Artificial Neural Networks for seismic demand prediction of a single degree of freedom

This paper proposes using an artificial neural network (ANN) to estimate and predict the seismic demand of Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) systems. Our methodology entails the production of a comprehensive dataset containing SDOF and earthquake characteristics. Nonlinear Time History Analysis (NL-THA) is performed on a randomly generated SDOF system using thirty-one artificial ground motions (GMs) matched to the EuroCode-8 (EC8) response spectrum to train the ANN model. To assess the performance of the ANN model, we compare the Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) curves, the median IDA curve, and the 3D fragility surface in a case study. This analysis assists in determining the precision and dependability of the predicted maximum displacement of the SDOF system. The results showed a remarkable reduction in processing time without losing prediction accuracy. . It was concludedthat the ANN-based method can be used as an alternative for the current method for estimating the performance points and the fragility assessment of buildings.

Effect of slab stiffness on floor response spectrum and fragility of equipment in nuclear power plant building

The floor response spectrum (FRS) is used to evaluate the seismic demand of equipment installed in nuclear power plants. In the conventional design practice of NPP structure, the FRS is simplified using the lumped-mass stick model (LMSM), assuming the floor slab as a rigid diaphragm. In the present study, to study the variation of seismic response in a floor, the FRSs at different locations were generated by 3-D finite element model, and the response was compared to that of the rigid diaphragm model. The result showed that the FRS significantly varied due to the large opening in a floor, which was not captured by the rigid diaphragm model. Based on the result, seismic fragility analysis was performed for the anchorage of a heat exchanger, to investigate the effect of location-dependent FRS disparity on the high confidence low probability of failure (HCLPF).

Performance-based wind and earthquake design framework for tall steel buildings with ductile detailing

According to the Canadian building code, wind design relies on prescriptive static methods, which lead to a conservative design. In consequence, in moderate seismic regions where both winds and earthquakes are critical, the size of ductile members resulting from seismic design, and especially those of bottom floors, may not accommodate the elastic wind demand and larger member sizes are required. In general, this is the case of rectangular buildings, where in the direction perpendicular to the largest building dimension, the base shear due to elastic wind demand is critical, while in the orthogonal direction the seismic demand governs. Hence, in one direction, the allowable base shear increases above the seismic demand, which results in reduced energy dissipation and amplification of torsion. To mitigate the incoherence in the current building code, a refined code-based multi-hazard design approach, targeting performance of tall steel buildings in Eastern Canada, is proposed. Thus, accounting for the building’s overstrength and allowing limited controlled inelasticity under high-intensity wind, a wind-related reduction factor RW is proposed to reduce the design wind load. The method is implemented for the design of two identical 15-storey steel braced frame buildings, but of different occupancy, hospital and office, respectively. Nonlinear response history analyses are performed to verify the member sections of steel braced frames, while the parameters investigated are the interstorey drift, residual interstorey drift and floor acceleration. Then, seismic and wind incremental dynamic analyses provide insight into the multi-hazard dynamic response of buildings subjected to ground motions and winds of increasing intensity. The fragility concept is used to quantify the performance of studied buildings designed with RW = 2 versus the building designed with RW = 1. Comfort criteria, as well as, the drift acceptance criteria, commonly considered in research and practice, are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The nonlinear response of the studied buildings at the design level and beyond shows that using RW = 2 for wind design does not change the response at design level, but slightly decreases the collapse capacity within the acceptable range.

Optimal intensity measure selection and probabilistic seismic demand model of pile group supported bridges in sandy soil considering variable scour effects

Scour of pile group foundations is a common hazard for cross-river bridges and can produce considerable damage to piles in earthquake-prone regions. The fragility-based performance assessment for pile group supported bridges subjected to earthquake and scour hazards has drawn increasing attention from engineering practice and academic communities. Such assessment requires numerical models that are computationally efficient and accurate in describing the mechanical behavior associated with the complex soil-pile interaction of these soil-bridge systems. Additionally, selecting an optimal ground motion intensity measure (IM) is generally required for such assessments. However, modeling the pile group effect for seismically excited pile groups and the optimal IM for the scoured bridges have not been well addressed in previous related studies. To this end, a practical pile group effect modeling approach is adopted in this study and validated by a set of shake table tests on scoured pile group bridge available in the literature. Based on the validated numerical modeling approach for the soil pile interaction, a series of coupled soil-bridge models are generated considering the structural and soil parameter uncertainty and analyzed in the OpenSees platform. The optimal IM for various engineering demand parameters (EDPs) is identified from thirty-nine scalar IM candidates through the criteria of efficiency, practicality, sufficiency, and hazard computability. Finally, a straightforward form of probabilistic seismic demand model (PSDM), incorporating the effect of scour depth changes, is developed for pile group supported bridges. Results show that the increase of scour depth significantly increases the curvature demand of a pile group and statistically reduces the embedded depth of the belowground plastic hinge of the pile shaft. The rank of optimal IM candidates directly depends on the selection criteria of an optimal IM and the selection of EDP. In addition, the scour depth slightly affects the rank of optimal IMs. Generally, VSI, PGV, and Sv,1.0 are recommended for the probabilistic seismic demand analysis of pile group supported bridges in sandy soils with scour potentials.

Research on the Overstrength Performance of Lateral Force-Resisting System of Guangzhou West Tower Based on Story Overturning Moment

ABSTRACT The factors of the building’s structure’s overstrength performance need to be researched to decrease the large amount of the structural materials and the investments caused unreasonably by the overstrength performance. Taking the Guangzhou West Tower as an example, the main reasons why the Guangzhou West Tower model structure was not damaged after encountering an earthquake (PGA = 620 gal) in the shaking table test was revealed. The overstrength performance of lateral force-resisting system of the Guangzhou West Tower building’s structure was researched, which is caused by the artificially adjusted earthquake influence coefficient of the long-period segment of response spectrum. The response spectrum analysis and the elastic/plastic incremental dynamic time history analysis were conducted to obtain the overstrength coefficient of the lateral force-resisting system that was calculated with the overturning moment at structural base. The analysis results showed that the yield overturning moment at structural base exceeds the seismic demand at the point where PGA = 400 gal, which could verify the reliability of the results of shaking table test. The artificial magnification of the long-period segment of response spectrum and the irrational correlation between the seismic grade and the building’s height are important reasons that increase the overstrength capacity of long-period building’s structure.

Sustainable and resilient seismic design of reinforced concrete frames with rocking isolation on spread footings

The rapidly evolving climate change together with the urgent need of modern societies for resilience against catastrophic threats set the sustainable and resilient seismic design of reinforced concrete (RC) structures as a priority. Rocking isolation of RC frames resting on spread footings has been proven numerically and experimentally to offer superior seismic performance with reduced seismic demands in the superstructure. At the same time, rocking footings do not require special construction solutions and can be readily implemented in the current state of practice. To exploit these benefits, the present study, for first time, utilizes rocking footings in the optimum design of RC frames for high seismic resilience and reduced environmental impact. This is achieved by incorporating a resilient seismic design methodology into a numerical optimization procedure that is aiming to minimize embodied carbon. Applications of the proposed approach show that the carbon footprint of RC frames can be reduced by 40% due to rocking isolation on spread footings. The benefits become more important as the level of seismic hazard increases. It is also found that the environmental benefits of rocking footings for RC frames are rather insensitive to the characteristics of ground motions and the uncertainties of soil properties.

Direct loss‐based seismic design of reinforced concrete frame and wall structures

AbstractThis paper presents a procedure to design reinforced concrete (RC) buildings to achieve an acceptable target level of earthquake‐induced loss (e.g., deaths, dollars, downtime) under a site‐specific hazard profile. The procedure is called “direct” since the target loss level is specified at the first step of the process, and virtually no iteration is required. The procedure is based on a simplified loss assessment involving a surrogate model for the seismic demand (i.e., probability distribution of peak horizontal deformation given ground‐motion intensity) and simplified loss models for direct and indirect losses. For an arbitrarily‐selected target loss level and structural geometry, the procedure provides the force‐displacement curve of the corresponding equivalent single degree of freedom system. The principles of displacement‐based design are adopted to provide member detailings (beams, columns, walls) consistent with such force‐displacement curve. The procedure is applied to 16 realistic RC case studies with a lateral resisting system composed of frames in one direction and cantilever walls in the perpendicular one. They show different geometries, hazard profiles, and target values of direct economic expected annual loss. A benchmark loss estimation is obtained using cloud‐based non‐linear time‐history analyses of multi‐degree of freedom models. The procedure is conservative since the benchmark loss levels are always smaller than the targets. Such discrepancy is within 10% for 12 out of 32 case studies, between 10% and 20% for 13, between 20% and 31% for the remaining six. Therefore, the proposed procedure is deemed dependable for preliminary design.

Bayesian analysis-based ground motion prediction equations for earthquake input energy

Earthquake energy-based procedures offer a promising alternative for seismic evaluation and earthquake-resistant design of structures. Accurate determination of earthquake energy demand and the provision of an adequate energy supply to the structural system are crucial for this approach. This is where the utilization of ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) becomes essential in achieving accurate assessment of seismic demands on structures. However, most GMPEs primarily focus on determining spectral accelerations. This study proposes a methodology to derive GMPEs by combining the Fourier amplitude spectrum, the elastic input energy spectrum, and Bayesian regression analysis. These GMPEs estimate energy-based spectral values for interplate and intraslab earthquakes recorded in the firm ground of Mexico City. Furthermore, a mathematical expression is devised to determine correlation coefficients between energy-based spectral values for interplate and intraslab earthquakes, expanding the GMPEs' applicability. Finally, a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is conducted using the proposed GMPEs and the correlation model.

Earthquake Economic Loss Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Structures Using Multiple Response Variables

For buildings that meet the requirements of current seismic design codes, damage to nonstructural components and the internal objects of buildings often become the main source of the seismic economic losses of these buildings. However, the current specifications only consider the safety of ‘no collapse under strong earthquake’ and do not consider ‘functional recoverability’. In this paper, a six-story frame building was taken as an example. Four joint performance limit states were proposed, as per FEMA 273, to establish a two-dimensional probabilistic seismic demand model that considers parameter correlations. The limit state function was established, and the two-dimensional seismic vulnerability curve was calculated. The seismic intensity–economic loss curve and the annual average economic loss established by one-dimensional and two-dimensional seismic vulnerability curves were compared. The results showed that the seismic performance of the structure was lower than expected when using only a one-dimensional seismic vulnerability curve. However, the situation was more serious under high-intensity earthquake and high-performance levels.

Nonlinear seismic analysis of irregular base isolated structures using a new modified lateral load pattern

Nowadays, seismic isolation systems are increasingly used by engineers for retrofitting existing structures and designing new ones. Nevertheless, limited studies have been conducted on the performance evaluation of the nonlinear static analysis methods for estimating the seismic demands of the base isolated structures. The current study proposes a new modified lateral load pattern for seismic analysis of base isolated structures using modified capacity spectrum method (MCSM). Moreover, this study investigates the applicability of the modal pushover analysis (MPA) and modified capacity spectrum methods for assessing the base isolated structures with setback irregularity. To this end, two types of steel moment resisting structures including 3-story (low-rise) and 9-story (medium-rise) with different irregularities in elevation are considered. All the structures are isolated by three types of lead rubber bearing (LRB) isolators with various stiffnesses. In order to consider the effect of ground motion, two types of near-fault and far-fault ground motions are selected. To evaluate the performance of the MCSM and MPA methods, the structural seismic demands estimated by these methods are compared with their benchmark values obtained by the nonlinear time history analysis method. The obtained results show the superiority of the modified capacity spectrum method and the effectiveness of the new modified lateral load pattern presented for this method.

Seismic damage characteristics of high arch dams under oblique incidence of SV waves

This study investigates the seismic damage characteristics of high arch dams considering the oblique incidence of seismic waves. Based on the dynamic implicit finite element method, a viscous-spring artificial boundary is applied to consider radiation damping of the infinite foundation, the seismic wave input is converted into an equivalent nodal force of the artificial boundary, and the equivalent nodal loads of the wave input under oblique incidence of the SV wave is deduced. Taking JP Ⅰ arch dam as an example, combined with the concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) model, the nonlinear dynamic response of the dam under 25° oblique incidence of the SV wave is conducted considering the geometrical nonlinearity of contraction joints and the dynamic mechanical properties of concrete materials. Based on the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method, the relative displacement and transverse joint opening are selected as the damage measures for fragility analysis of the arch dam. According to the damage distribution from the analysis of a large number of seismic time-history responses, the damage levels of the arch dam are classified. Three limit states of slight damage, moderate damage and severe damage are proposed for the arch dam. The average responses of the 10 earthquakes are considered as the limit values to quantitatively describe the damage of the arch dam. By fitting the results of incremental dynamic analysis, the seismic probabilistic demand model and seismic fragility curves for the two damage measures to predict the probability of the arch dam reaching damage levels under different seismic actions have been established. The fragility curve shows that the probability of severe damage is almost zero under the maximum design earthquake (PGA = 0.1971 g) and less than 5% under the maximum credible earthquake (PGA = 0.2299 g). It is concluded that JP Ⅰ arch dam has a high degree of safety redundancy and fully satisfies the “two levels” design requirements.