Evaluation of collapse resistance of RC frame structures for Chinese schools in seismic design categories B and C

According to the Code for Seismic Design of Buildings （GB50011-2001）, ten typical reinforced concrete （RC） frame structures, used as school classroom buildings, are designed with different seismic fortification intensities （SFIs） （SFI=6 to 8.5） and different seismic design categories （SDCs） （SDC=B and C）. The collapse resistance of the frames with SDC=B and C in terms of collapse fragility curves are quantitatively evaluated and compared via incremental dynamic analysis （IDA）. The results show that the collapse resistance of structures should be evaluated based on both the absolute seismic resistance and the corresponding design seismic intensity. For the frames with SFI from 6 to 7.5, because they have relatively low absolute seismic resistance, their collapse resistance is insufficient even when their corresponding SDCs are upgraded from B to C. Thus, further measures are needed to enhance these structures, and some suggestions are proposed.

Seismic health monitoring of RC frame structures using smart aggregates

Structural health monitoring of RC structures under seismic loads has recently attracted much attention in the earthquake engineering research community. In this study, a piezoceramic-based device called ＂smart aggregate＂ was used for the health monitoring of RC frame structures under earthquake excitations. Three RC moment frames instrumented with smart aggregates were tested using a shaketable with different ground excitation intensities. Distributed piezoceramic- based smart aggregates were embedded in the RC structures and used to monitor their health condition during the tests. The sensitivity and effectiveness of the proposed piezoceramic-based approach were investigated and evaluated by analyzing the measured responses. The displacement ductility demand of the structural members was calculated and compared with the damage index determined from the health monitoring system. The comparison shows that the damage index is compatible with the calculated ductility demand.

Effect of URM infills on seismic vulnerability of Indian code designed RC frame buildings

Unreinforced Masonry (URM) is the most common partitioning material in framed buildings in India and many other countries. Although it is well-known that under lateral loading the behavior and modes of failure of the frame buildings change significantly due to infill-frame interaction, the general design practice is to treat infills as nonstructural elements and their stiffness, strength and interaction with the frame is often ignored, primarily because of difficulties in simulation and lack of modeling guidelines in design codes. The Indian Standard, like many other national codes, does not provide explicit insight into the anticipated performance and associated vulnerability of infilled frames. This paper presents an analytical study on the seismic performance and fragility analysis of Indian code-designed RC frame buildings with and without URM infills. Infills are modeled as diagonal struts as per ASCE 41 guidelines and various modes of failure are considered. HAZUS methodology along with nonlinear static analysis is used to compare the seismic vulnerability of bare and infilled frames. The comparative study suggests that URM infills result in a significant increase in the seismic vulnerability of RC frames and their effect needs to be properly incorporated in design codes.

Slotted Hole Effect on Damage Mechanism of Gymnasium Building with RC Frame and Steel Roof

On the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, gymnasium buildings exhibited the unexpected structural damages, which prevented a use as evacuation shelters in during- and post-disaster periods. The major failure occurring on the connection between the RC column top and steel roof as well as the cracks in the RC column base was observed during the emergent inspection. According to the earlier studies, it was implied that the presence of the slotted hole possibly deteriorates the seismic capacity;however, the length of slotted hole was fixed at a certain value. Facing this concern, this research attempts to clarify the influence of the slotted hole length through a comprehensive parametric study by pushover and seismic response analyses. In conclusion, it has been discovered that the slotted hole deteriorates the seismic capacity for the connection failure up to almost 50% of that without slotted hole. Moreover, the discrepancy of characteristics obtained by the static and dynamic analyses is originated by means of the presence of slotted hole. This slotted hole effect should be noted by structural engineers and researchers to provide the adequate seismic diagnosis and strengthening.

New Factor to Characterize Mechanism of “Strong Column-Weak Beam” of RC Frame Structures

Most reinforced concrete(RC)frame structures did not achieve the "strong column-weak beam" failure mode in recent big earthquakes, resulting in a large number of casualties and significant property loss. To deal with this serious problem, a new column-beam relative factor was proposed to characterize the relative yield situation of column ends and beam ends. By limiting the column-beam relative factor, RC frame structures could achieve the "strong column-weak beam" failure mode under the excitation of strong ground motions. The limit values of column-beam relative factor were calculated, analyzed and verified by using structural simulation models for corner columns in the bottom story of structures, which are destroyed most seriously in earthquakes. The results show that the limit values should be analyzed under bi-directional ground motion and with different axial compression ratios of columns. The peak ground acceleration(PGA)of ground motions has no significant effect on the limit values, while the type of strong ground motions has a significant effect on the limit values.

Behavior of ductile steel X-braced RC frames in seismic zones

A satisfactory ductile performance of moment-resisting reinforced concrete concentric braced frame structures (RC-MRCBFs) is not warranted by only following the provisions proposed in Mexico’s Federal District Code (MFDC-04). The nonlinear behavior of low to medium rise ductile RC-MRCBFs using steel X-bracing susceptible to buckling is evaluated in this study. The height of the studied structures ranges from 4 to 20 stories and they were located for design in the lakebed zone of Mexico City. The design of RC-MRCBFs was carried out considering variable contribution of the two main lines of defense of the dual system (RC columns and steel braces). In order to observe the principal elements responsible for dissipating the earthquake input energy, yielding mappings for diff erent load-steps were obtained using both nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. Some design parameters currently proposed in MFDC-04 as global ductility capacities, overstrength reduction factors and story drifts corresponding to diff erent limit states were assessed as a function of both the considered shear strength and slenderness ratios for the studied RC-MRCBFs using pushover analyses. Additionally, envelopes of response maxima of dynamic parameters were obtained from the story and global hysteresis curves. Finally, a brief discussion regarding residual drifts, residual drift ratios, mappings of residual deformations in steel braces and residual rotations in RC beams and columns is presented. From the analysis of the obtained results, it is concluded that when a suitable design criterion is considered, good structural behavior of RC-MRCBFs with steel-X bracing can be obtained. It is also observed that the shear strength balance has an impact in the height-wise distribution of residual drifts, and an important “shake-down” eff ect is obtained for all cases. There is a need to improve design parameters currently proposed in MFDC to promote an adequate seismic performance of RC-MRCBFs.

Progressive Collapse of RC Frames Due to Heavy Impact Loads of Tsunami

Progressive collapse is a relatively rare event, as it requires both an abnormal loading to initiate the local damage and a structure that lacks adequate continuity, ductility and redundancy to resist the spread of damage. However, significant casualties can result when collapse occurs. Heavy impact loads due to tsunami against building can be one of the scenarios of progressive collapse during tsunami disaster. Since progressive collapse includes material and geometry nonlinearity during collapse propagation, in the present research capability of 2 models for the material nonlinearity in simulating actual behavior of structures during collapse is compared with recent experimental results of a Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame. The results demonstrate that a material nonlinearity model, that is based on the idealized component load-deformation behavior, is not a proper representation for the real behavior of structures during progressive collapse and is so conservative.

Seismic assessment of RC frames infilled with innovative CFS walls considering seismic orientation effect

The metal tailings porous concrete cold-formed steel(MCFS)wall is an innovative cold-formed steel(CFS)wall with good thermal and mechanical properties,which has the potential to be widely utilized as the infilled wall(IW).In this paper,the MCFS walls are adopted in the reinforced concrete(RC)frame,and the seismic performance of the building subjected to ground motions with various incidence angles are investigated.Three-dimensional finite element model of the studied building is developed with full consideration of the in-plain(IP)and out-of-plane(OP)behavior of MCFS walls.Incremental dynamic analysis is conducted to obtain the deformation responses of frames and damage ratios of MCFS walls under the combined effect of seismic intensity and orientation.Fragility curves are generated to assess the seismic performance of the building and investigate the effect of ground motion orientation.The results validate the superior performance of infilled MCFS walls,and reveal that the seismic orientation has a considerable impact on the response along each reference axis of the structure.Furthermore,different incidence angles induce up to 10.2%and 14.4%variations in the median Sa(T1)of fragilities for the frames in X and Y axes,and the corresponding change rates in the median Sa(T1)for the walls are 13.5%and 15.1%,respectively.However,for the overall performance of the building,the seismic orientation effect is less significant.The rates of changes in median Sa(T1)are less than 4%for both frames and MCFS walls.

近海大气环境下RC框架结构时变地震易损性分析

由于近海大气环境中存在的氯离子会侵蚀RC框架结构,造成材料性能不断劣化,最终降低了RC框架结构的抗震性能。为研究近海大气环境下RC框架结构地震损伤风险变化规律,基于钢筋均匀锈蚀模型及混凝土开裂前后钢筋锈蚀速率的变化规律,提出了一种改进的钢筋锈蚀率概率模型,并构建材料性能劣化模型。在此基础上,根据解析易损性分析理论,建立考虑氯离子侵蚀的近海大气环境RC框架结构时变易损性分析方法,并构建典型结构,分析不同损伤状态下的时变易损性曲线,评估其时变易损性与损伤状态。研究结果表明:当地震动强度指标取值相同时,各损伤状态结构在服役龄期内的地震易损性呈现出非线性增大趋势,抗震性能不断退化;以易损性指数作为结构损伤指标时,按照我国规范设计的RC框架结构,在30 a服役龄期内能够满足我国三性能抗震设防水准。

功能可恢复RCS混合框架结构研究进展

钢筋混凝土柱-钢梁(RCS)混合框架结构以其结合了混凝土优异的抗压性能及钢材优异的抗弯性能而受到广泛关注,而可恢复功能结构以其震后快速恢复使用功能的能力,也成为地震工程界研究的新热点。功能可恢复RCS混合框架结构可以在弯矩较大的梁端和柱脚部位设置可更换构件,实现结构的功能可恢复能力。文中简述了近年来功能可恢复RCS混合框架结构研究进展,重点关注各类型功能可恢复钢梁、功能可恢复摇摆柱脚的构造研究,介绍了功能可恢复RCS混合框架结构性能分析研究进展。最后,对功能可恢复RCS混合框架结构仍需深入研究的问题进行了展望。

柔性连接填充墙RC框架抗连续倒塌性能研究

为了研究柔性连接填充墙钢筋混凝土(reinforced concrete,RC)框架的抗连续倒塌性能,用ABAQUS建立了纯框架、刚性和柔性连接填充墙框架的有限元模型,并验证了建模方法的可靠性。对比了刚性与柔性连接填充墙对RC框架抗连续倒塌性能的影响,研究了墙-框连接刚度、拉结筋设置情况、构造柱数量和类型、砌块和砂浆强度对柔性连接填充墙RC框架连续倒塌抗力的影响。结果表明:柔性连接填充墙RC框架的连续倒塌抗力和延性更好;墙-框间填充高弹性材料、增加构造柱数量、提高砂浆强度有利于提高柔性连接填充墙RC框架抗连续倒塌的峰值承载力和极限承载力;墙-框间填充常规填缝材料、设置Ⅱ型构造柱、提高砌块强度会提高峰值承载力、降低极限承载力,设置拉结筋的效果则相反。

型钢组合加固震损RC框架抗震性能试验研究

震损RC框架需在震后得到快速修复,考虑采用加强局部构造及提高整体结构抗震能力的方法,以恢复甚至提高震损框架的抗震能力。结合框架在地震作用下的受力特性及破坏模式,先对柱采取外包角钢与缀条的局部加固,后对整体框架分别采取薄壁钢板剪力墙、斜支撑、V形屈曲约束支撑方式进行加固,并对加固后试件进行低周往复加载试验。结果表明:组合加固后试件抗震性能改善明显,将原框架的“强梁弱柱”转为符合抗震要求的“强节点弱构件,强柱弱梁”破坏。破坏时支撑及薄壁钢板先破坏,能有效避免主体框架过早破坏。试件加固后承载能力、初始刚度、延性及累积耗能均比未加固试件提高显著,且承载力及刚度退化均较缓慢,最后破坏为累积损伤所致。采用V形屈曲约束支撑加固的试件由于其具有多重耗能能力,其抗震性能及延性均好于其他两种组合加固方式的试件,综合考虑试件加固后的抗震性能及破坏模式,建议选用此种方法加固。

柔性连接填充墙RC框架结构非线性有限元分析

为了研究橡胶作为新型柔性连接材料对填充墙钢筋混凝土(RC)框架结构抗震性能的影响,在7榀1/2缩尺填充墙RC框架结构低周反复加载试验的基础上,采用DIANA有限元软件分析了填充墙与框架之间的连接方式、砌块材料、柔性连接材料以及砂浆强度对填充墙RC框架结构抗震性能的影响。结果表明:与刚性连接相比,以橡胶作为新型柔性连接材料,能减缓结构的强度和刚度退化,极大降低结构的破坏程度,显著提高结构的抗震性能;高弹性橡胶和高阻尼橡胶作为柔性连接材料均表现出优异的抗震性能,而聚苯板(EPS)作为柔性连接材料的抗震性能要比橡胶差;刚性连接方式下不同砌块材料对结构抗震性能影响很大,当使用强度较高的砌块材料时建议采用柔性连接方式以减弱墙-框相互作用;合理降低砂浆的强度等级,可以改变填充墙的破坏模式,对抗震有利。

基于XGBoost模型集成学习的RC框架结构地震响应预测方法

为实现钢筋混凝土(RC)框架结构地震响应的快速预测,提出了基于集成学习的RC框架结构地震响应预测方法。设计低层、多层和小高层共3个RC框架结构作为研究算例,根据条件均值谱(CMS)选取地震动记录,通过弹塑性时程分析搭建样本数据库,以地震动强度信息和结构信息为输入预测结构响应,同时对模型进行特征重要性分析。研究结果表明,建立的XGBoost模型相比梯度提升回归树(GBRT)模型具有更好的泛化性能,特征参数中平均谱加速度(AvgS_(a))的相对重要性最大,提出的方法为快速预测RC框架结构地震响应提供了借鉴,具有较高的应用价值。

考虑填充墙平面刚度分布的RC框架结构抗地震倒塌能力研究

为研究填充墙对RC框架结构抗震性能的影响,以汶川地震中发生倒塌的漩口中学教学楼A为原型,基于ABAQUS软件建立了有限元模型,对结构底层各柱的剪力进行分析,发现由于填充墙的布置使得结构平面刚度分布不均,造成地震剪力在各榀框架之间分布不均匀。为了定量地考虑平面各轴线刚度分布对结构抗震性能的影响,设计了4个沿轴线各榀填充墙框架不同刚度分布的结构模型,通过IDA(增量动力分析)分析对比评估4个模型的抗地震倒塌能力。结果表明:平面刚度均匀分布的结构模型倒塌概率最低,具有良好的地震韧性;当某轴线的刚度高于平面各轴线平均刚度的30%时,结构的倒塌概率大幅提高,抗倒塌安全储备不足,建议在设计中平面各轴线的刚度不应超过此限值。

面向均匀损伤的RC框架结构抗震优化设计方法

RC框架结构在地震作用下多出现局部楼层损伤明显或抗力不足问题,通过对抗侧力构件性能的合理优化可实现各楼层损伤程度相近的设计效果,消除薄弱层,达到更为理想的均匀损伤分布模式。提出RC框架结构的均匀损伤设计方法,以各楼层损伤指数相等或相近为优化目标,各层框架柱配筋率为优化变量,通过智能算法与有限元平台协同计算技术,实现RC框架结构均匀损伤优化设计,并采用弹塑性时程分析和IDA方法对优化效果进行验证分析。结果表明,通过智能算法优化框架柱配筋方案可以有效调控结构各层损伤程度,不同地震波作用下结构最优配筋率分布是不完全相同的,并且框架柱的最优配筋率分布也未呈现明显的统计规律,但将不同地震波下优化结果的均值作为框架柱配筋方案可以提高结构抗震能力,该优化方法合理有效。

RCS混合节点抗剪承载力计算方法对比研究

为研究适用性强的钢筋混凝土柱-钢梁(RCS)混合节点抗剪承载力计算方法,对近年来的RCS节点剪切破坏试验数据进行了统计,将试验结果与中国规程方法、Nishiyama方法、Parra方法和ASCE指南方法计算结果进行了对比,并对各方法的参数适用性进行了讨论。对比结果表明:4种方法均具有工程实用价值,其中Parra方法结果离散性最小,中国规程方法计算最为简便。参数分析表明:4种方法对不同配箍率和不同位置节点均有较好适用性,但对小轴压比节点(轴压比0~0.2)与柱贯通节点预测均偏于保守;中国规程方法对于混凝土强度高于60 MPa的节点预测结果偏于危险,同时对有直交梁节点承载力预测偏于保守。建议在公式中引入混凝土强度系数和直交梁约束系数,用以考虑两者对承载力的影响。

基于人工神经网络的RC框架结构地震响应预测方法

为了实现钢筋混凝土(Reinforced Concrete,RC)框架结构地震响应的快速预测,提出了一种基于人工神经网络的RC框架结构地震响应预测方法,设计低层、多层和小高层共3个典型RC框架结构作为研究对象,以四川雅安地区为目标场地,基于条件均值谱选取地震动记录作为输入并进行弹塑性时程分析,所得样本数据用于训练人工神经网络。以地震动强度信息和结构信息为输入预测结构响应,同时对模型进行参数敏感性分析。结果表明:建立的人工神经网络模型具有较好的泛化性能,平均谱加速度具有最高的平均影响值,提出的方法为快速预测RC框架结构地震响应提供了方法借鉴。

填充墙分布对RC框架结构抗连续倒塌承载力的影响

为研究填充墙分布对钢筋混凝土(reinforced concrete,RC)框架结构抗连续倒塌承载力的影响,基于ABAQUS软件建立了RC填充墙框架结构抗连续倒塌的整体式有限元模型,并与已有的试验研究结果进行对比,验证了建模方法和本构关系选取的合理性。在此基础上,对比分析了不同填充墙数量及分布形式下RC框架结构抗连续倒塌的全过程荷载-位移关系、节点水平位移与中柱竖向位移关系、塑性铰分布和峰值承载力。结果表明:位于失效柱跨的填充墙可显著提高框架结构的抗连续倒塌承载力;填充墙分布会改变框架结构塑性铰的位置,塑性铰分布越不均匀,结构的抗倒塌性能越弱;建筑设计中应避免填充墙水平不对称分布及填充墙仅在楼层两端分布的情况。