Seismic performance evaluation of an infilled rocking wall frame structure through quasi-static cyclic testing

Earthquake investigations have illustrated that even code-compliant reinforced concrete frames may suffer from soft-story mechanism.This damage mode results in poor ductility and limited energy dissipation.Continuous components offer alternatives that may avoid such failures.A novel infilled rocking wall frame system is proposed that takes advantage of continuous component and rocking characteristics.Previous studies have investigated similar systems that combine a reinforced concrete frame and a wall with rocking behavior used.However,a large-scale experimental study of a reinforced concrete frame combined with a rocking wall has not been reported.In this study,a seismic performance evaluation of the newly proposed infilled rocking wall frame structure was conducted through quasi-static cyclic testing.Critical joints were designed and verified.Numerical models were established and calibrated to estimate frame shear forces.The results evaluation demonstrate that an infilled rocking wall frame can effectively avoid soft-story mechanisms.Capacity and initial stiffness are greatly improved and self-centering behavior is achieved with the help of the infilled rocking wall.Drift distribution becomes more uniform with height.Concrete cracks and damage occurs in desired areas.The infilled rocking wall frame offers a promising approach to achieving seismic resilience.

Optimization of design parameters for controlled rocking steel braced dual-frames

A controlled rocking concentrically steel braced frame(CR-CSBF)is introduced as an alternative to conventional methods to prevent major structural damage during large earthquakes.It is equipped with elastic post-tensioned(PT)cables and replaceable devices or fuses to provide overturning resistance and dissipate energy,respectively.Although CR-CSBFs are not officially legalized in globally valid codes for new buildings,it is expected to be presented in them in the near future.The main goal of this study is to determine the optimal design parameters consist of the yield strength and modulus of elasticity of the fuse,the initial force of the PT cable,and the gravity load on the rocking column,considering different heights of the frame,spanning ratios and ground motion types for dual-configuration CR-CSBF.Nonlinear time-history analyses are performed in OpenSees.This study aims to define the optimal input variables as effective design parameters of CR-CSBFs by comparing four seismic responses consisting of story drift,roof displacement,roof acceleration and base shear,and also using the Euclidean metric optimization method.Despite the previous research,this study is innovative and first of its kind.The results demonstrate that the optimal design parameters are variable for various conditions.

Effect of Overpressure on Rock Frame and Its Implications for Overpressure Evolution

Overpressure is a hot topic in the study of sedimentary basins. It is important in generation, maturation migration, and accumulation of hydrocarbon, but the effects of overpressure on rock frame have not been investigated. In this study, experiments were carried out to study the effects of overpressure on rock frame structures using five core samples from the Junggar basin, Northwest China. The deformations and velocities for the samples were measured at different effective pressures related to non-equilibrium compaction and fluid expansion overpressure mechanisms. The results show that the effect of overpressure on rock frames gradually increases when the effective pressure drops down to a certain value （called critical pressure）. Moreover, non-equilibrium compaction mechanism has more effects on rock frames than fluid expansion mechanism under the same effective pressure. Furthermore to study rock frame structural changes, we use Kuster and Toksoz＇s expressions to simulate the effective aspect ratios of inclusions a （penny shapes） for different effective pressures. The results show that the a decreases dramatically when the effective pressure decreases from the critical pressure. Changes of a can be interpreted as responses to the rock frame changes when grains conform one another by rotating and self-adjusting. However, different mechanisms of overpressure have different effects on rock frames. The rock frame can be affected more easily by overpressure in shallow regions generated by non-equilibrium compaction mechanism. Once this kind of rock frames are preserved after overpressure releases to a normal hydrostatic pressure, they can be identified by their specific rock frame characters. This method provides a new way to study overpressure release and fluid migration and accumulation.