Performance-based seismic design of nonstructural building components:The next frontier of earthquake engineering

With the development and implementation of performance-based earthquake engineering,harmonization of performance levels between structural and nonstructural components becomes vital. Even if the structural components of a building achieve a continuous or immediate occupancy performance level after a seismic event,failure of architectural,mechanical or electrical components can lower the performance level of the entire building system. This reduction in performance caused by the vulnerability of nonstructural components has been observed during recent earthquakes worldwide. Moreover,nonstructural damage has limited the functionality of critical facilities,such as hospitals,following major seismic events. The investment in nonstructural components and building contents is far greater than that of structural components and framing. Therefore,it is not surprising that in many past earthquakes,losses from damage to nonstructural components have exceeded losses from structural damage. Furthermore,the failure of nonstructural components can become a safety hazard or can hamper the safe movement of occupants evacuating buildings,or of rescue workers entering buildings. In comparison to structural components and systems,there is relatively limited information on the seismic design of nonstructural components. Basic research work in this area has been sparse,and the available codes and guidelines are usually,for the most part,based on past experiences,engineering judgment and intuition,rather than on objective experimental and analytical results. Often,design engineers are forced to start almost from square one after each earthquake event: to observe what went wrong and to try to prevent repetitions. This is a consequence of the empirical nature of current seismic regulations and guidelines for nonstructural components. This review paper summarizes current knowledge on the seismic design and analysis of nonstructural building components,identifying major knowledge gaps that will need to be filled by future research. Furthermore,considering recent trends in earthquake engineering,the paper explores how performance-based seismic design might be conceived for nonstructural components,drawing on recent developments made in the field of seismic design and hinting at the specific considerations required for nonstructural components.

Characteristic Period Value of the Seismic Design Response Spectrum of UHV Electrical Equipment

Characteristic period is an important parameter of the seismic design response spectrum. There is important theoretical significance and engineering application value to the study of the characteristic period of seismic design response spectrum of ultra high voltage （UHV） electrical equipment. In this paper, 1448 horizontal earthquake records within the world scope including the United States and Japan for Site Class m were analyzed. Results show that both magnitude and epicentral distance have great influence on the characteristic period. About 80 % of characteristic periods of strong earthquake records are about 0. 9s. Statistical analysis was conducted on the seismic hazard assessment results of 312 projects of China in recent years, and it is found that about 70 % of characteristic periods are about 0. 9s. Combined with the related code comparison and analysis, it is suggested that the characteristic period of the seismic design response spectrmn of UHV electrical equipment should select 0. 9s in order to effectively guarantee the seismic safety of UHV electrical equipment.

Comparative Study between Waffle and Solid Slab Systems in Terms of Economy and Seismic Performance of a Typical 14-Story RC Building

In order to maximize the return of investments and at the same time improve the quality in the construction industry of midrise buildings, it is very important to derive an optimal solution to the building structural system, which would facilitate faster and easier construction activities with minimal quantity of construction material, while maintaining the satisfactory level of building safety and performance. This paper makes a comparative study between a ＂solid＂ and a ＂waffle＂ slab system. A typical 14-story RC building structure is selected as an example for this study purpose. The first part of this study is focused in deriving an optimal solution for a solid and waffle slab system which are later on considered as constituents of all stories of the 14-story building. In the second part, it is elaborated the effect of both slab systems over the 14-story building model. This study aims to emphasize the advantages of mid-rise buildings constituted of waffle slab system over the buildings characterized with solid types of slabs, in terms of economy, structural safety and performance.

Seismic performances of dyke on liquefiable soils

Various field investigations of earthquake disaster cases have confirmed that earthquake-induced liquefaction is a main factor causing significant damage to dyke,research on seismic performances of dyke is thus of great importance.In this paper,seismic responses of dyke on liquefiable soils were investigated by means of dynamic centrifuge model tests and three-dimensional（3D） effective stress analysis method which is based on a multiple shear mechanism model and a liquefaction front.For the prototype scale centrifuge tests,sine wave input motions with peak accelerations 0.806 m/s2,1.790 m/s2 and 3.133 m/s2 of varied amplitudes were adopted to study the seismic performances of dyke on the saturated soil layer foundation with relative density of approximately 30%.Then,corresponding numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the distribution and variations of deformation,acceleration,excess pore-water pressure（EPWP）,and behaviors of shear dilatancy in the dyke and the liquefiable soil foundation.Moreover,detailed discussions and comparisons between numerical simulations and centrifuge tests were also presented.It is concluded that the computed results have a good agreement with the measured results by centrifuge tests.The physical and numerical models both indicate that the dyke hosted on liquefiable soils subjected to earthquake motions has exhibited larger settlement and lateral spread：the stronger the motion is,the larger the dyke deformation is.Compared to soils in the deep ground under the dyke and the free field,the EPWP ratio is much smaller in the shallow liquefiable soil beneath the dyke in spite of large deformation produced.For the same overburden depth soil from free site and the liquefiable foundation beneath dyke,the characteristics of effective stress path and stress-strain relations are different.All these results may be of theoretical and practical significance for seismic design of the dyke on liquefiable soils.

Recent developments in the structural design and optimization of ITER neutral beam manifold

This paper describes a new design of the neutral beam manifold based on a more optimized support system.A proposed alternative scheme has presented to replace the former complex manifold supports and internal pipe supports in the final design phase.Both the structural reliability and feasibility were confirmed with detailed analyses.Comparative analyses between two typical types of manifold support scheme were performed.All relevant results of mechanical analyses for typical operation scenarios and fault conditions are presented.Future optimization activities are described,which will give useful information for a refined setting of components in the next phase.

Research on the attribution evaluating methods of dynamic effects of various parameter uncertainties on the in-structure floor response spectra of nuclear power plant

： Consideration of the dynamic effects of the site and structural parameter uncertainty is required by the standards for nuclear power plants （NPPs） in most countries. The anti-seismic standards provide two basic methods to analyze parameter uncertainty. Directly manually dealing with the calculated floor response spectra （FRS） values of deterministic approaches is the first method. The second method is to perform probability statistical analysis of the FRS results on the basis of the Monte Carlo method. The two methods can only reflect the overall effects of the uncertain parameters, and the results cannot be screened for a certain parameter＇s influence and contribution. In this study, based on the dynamic analyses of the floor response spectra of NPPs, a comprehensive index of the assessed impact for various uncertain parameters is presented and recommended, including the correlation coefficient, the regression slope coefficient and Tornado swing. To compensate for the lack of guidance in the NPP seismic standards, the proposed method can effectively be used to evaluate the contributions of various parameters from the aspects ＆sensitivity, acuity and statistical swing correlations. Finally, examples are provided to verify the set of indicators from systematic and intuitive perspectives, such as the uncertainty of the impact of the structure parameters and the contribution to the FRS of NPPs. The index is sensitive to different types of parameters, which provides a new technique for evaluating the anti-seismic parameters required for NPPs.