• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1069-1084
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• 2016

This paper introduces a new and effective design amplification factor-based approach for reliable optimum design of trusses. This paper may be categorized as in the family of decoupled methods that aiming for a reliable optimum design based on a Design Amplification Factor (DAF). To reduce the computational expenses of reliability analysis, an improved version of Response Surface Method (RSM) was used. Having applied this approach to two planar and one spatial truss problems, it exhibited a satisfactory performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.443-462
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• 2015

Some model building codes stipulate that the design displacement of a building can be computed using the elastic static analysis results multiplied by the deflection amplification factor, $C_d$. This approach for estimating the design displacement is essential and appealing in structural engineering practice when nonlinear response history analysis (NRHA) is not required. Furthermore, building codes stipulate the consideration of accidental torsion effects using accidental eccentricity, whether the buildings are symmetric-plan, or asymmetric-plan. In some model building codes, the accidental eccentricity is further amplified by the torsional amplification factor $A_x$ in order to minimize the discrepancy between statically and dynamically estimated responses. Therefore, this warrants exploration of the reliability of statically estimated design displacements in accordance with the building code requirements. This study uses the discrepancy curves as a way of assessing the reliability of the design displacement estimates resulting from the factors $C_d$ and $A_x$. The discrepancy curves show the exceedance probabilities of the differences between the statically estimated design displacements and NRHA results. The discrepancy curves of 3-story, 9-story, and 20-story example buildings are investigated in this study. The example buildings are steel special moment frames with frequency ratios equal to 0.7, 1.0, 1.3, and 1.6, as well as existing eccentricity ratios ranging from 0% to 30%.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.121-129
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• 2012

All contemporary seismic Codes have adopted smooth design acceleration response spectra, which have derived by statistical analysis of many elastic response spectra of natural accelerograms. The above smooth design spectra are characterized by two main branches, an horizontal branch that is 2.5 times higher than the peak ground acceleration, and a declining parabolic branch. According to Eurocode EN/1998, the period range of the horizontal, flat branch is extended from 0.1 s, for rock soils, up to 0.8 s for softer ones. However, from many natural recorded accelerograms of important earthquakes, the real spectral amplification factor appears to be much higher than 2.5 and this means that the spectrum leads to an unsafe seismic design of the structures. This point is an issue open to question and it is the object of the present study. In the present paper, the spectral amplification factor of the smooth design acceleration spectra is re-calculated on the grounds of a known "reliability index" for a desired probability of exceedance. As a pilot scheme, the seismic area of Greece is chosen, as it is the most seismically hazardous area in Europe. The accelerograms of the 82 most important earthquakes, which have occurred in Greece during the last 38 years, are used. The soil categories are taken into account according to EN/1998. The results that have been concluded from these data are compared with the results obtained from other strong earthquakes reported in the World literature.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.137-148
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• 2019

Korean piloti-type buildings are comprised of pilotis in the first story and shear walls in the upper stories. This vertical irregularity causes excessive lateral plastic deformation on the first story while the upper stories stay elastic. Meanwhile, asymmetric position of structural components such as core walls and columns of RC piloti-type buildings tends to produce torsional irregularities of the structures. Korean Building Code(KBC2016) requires the special seismic load and torsional amplification factor to apply to the piloti-type buildings lower than six-story or 20m if it has vertical and torsional irregularities when the building corresponds to seismic design category C or D. Many Korean low-rised RC buildings fall into the class. Therefore, the special earthquake load and torsional amplification factor are often applied to a building simultaneously. However, it has not been studied enough how much influence each parameter has on buildings with vertical and torsional irregularities at the same time. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of factor special seismic load and torsional amplification on seismic performance of irregular buildings. In this study, a damaged 4^th story piloti-type building by the Pohang earthquake was selected and the earthquake response analysis was carried out with various seismic design methods by the KBC 2016. The effect of the design parameters on seismic performance was analyzed by the dynamic analysis of models with special seismic load and torsional amplification factor based on the selected building. It was concluded that the application of the torsional amplification factor to the reference model to which special seismic design was applied, does not significantly affect the seismic performance.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.159-169
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• 2020

Acceleration amplification factors, which are variables used in the seismic design of power facilities installed inside substation structures, are presented in the seismic design standards of the United States (US), Japan, and Korea. Unlike the coefficients presented in the design standards of the US and Japan, those presented in domestic design standards can be obtained only by performing dynamic analysis when the substation structure has more than four floors. Because most substation structures in Korea have 4-5 stories, the existing acceleration amplification factor is insufficient to be applied to actual substation structures. To suggest an acceleration amplification factor suitable for domestic substation structure types, the acceleration amplification factor was evaluated for seven representative substation structures. The acceleration amplification factors were evaluated by constructing in-structure response spectra based on a study of far-field and near-fault earthquakes. In general, the acceleration amplification coefficients α_J and α_A according to the US and Japan seismic design criteria tend to be overestimated compared with the acceleration amplification factors obtained through dynamic analysis based on the study of near-fault and far-field earthquakes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2020

Steel plate shear walls are recently used as efficient seismic lateral resisting systems. These lateral resistant structures are implemented to provide more strength, stiffness and ductility in limited space areas. In this study, the seismic behavior of the multi-story steel frames with steel plate shear walls are investigated for buildings with 4, 8, 12 and 16 stories using verified computational modeling platforms. Different number of steel moment bays with distinctive lengths are investigated to effectively determine the deflection amplification factor for low-rise and high-rise structures. Results showed that the dissipated energy in moment frames with steel plates are significantly related to the inside panel. It is shown that more than 50% of the dissipated energy under various ground motions is dissipated by the panel itself, and increasing the steel plate length leads to higher energy dissipation capability. The deflection amplification factor is studied in details for various verified parametric cases, and it is concluded that for a typical multi-story moment frame with steel plate shear walls, the amplification factor is 4.93 which is less than the recommended conservative values in the design codes. It is shown that the deflection amplification factor decreases if the height of the building increases, for which the frames with more than six stories would have less recommended deflection amplification factor. In addition, increasing the number of bays or decreasing the steel plate shear wall length leads to a reduction of the deflection amplification factor.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.21-33
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• 2020

Ground response analysis has been conducted for each borehole data in Pohang area, using 1D equivalent linear method program, to investigate the applicability of amplification factor to estimate peak ground acceleration. Earthquake motions for ground response analysis were prepared by matching response spectrums for return period of 500, 1000, and 2400 years suggested by seismic design code (MOIS, 2017). Ground survey data were acquired from Geotechnical Information DB System. It has been confirmed that response spectrum obtained from ground response analysis showed good agreement with those from seismic design code irrespective of ground classification. However, PGA (Peak Ground Accelerations) of ground response analysis did not coincide with PGA calculated using amplification factor suggested by seismic design code.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.193-202
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• 2024

Modern high-rise tower designs incorporating recessed balcony cavity spaces can be prone to high-frequency and narrow-band Rossiter aerodynamic excitations under glancing incident winds that can harmonize and compete with recessed balcony volume acoustic Helmholtz modes and facade elastic responses. Resulting resonant inertial wind loading to balcony facades responding to these excitations is additive to the peak design wind pressures currently allowed for in wind codes and can present as excessive facade vibrations and sub-audible throbbing in the serviceability range of wind speeds. This paper presents a methodology to determine Cavity Amplification Factors to account for façade resonant inertial wind loads resulting from balcony cavity aero-acoustic-elastic resonances by drawing upon field observations and the results of full-scale monitoring and model-scale wind tunnel tests. Recessed balcony cavities with single orifice type openings and located within curved façade tower geometries appear particularly prone. A Cavity Amplification Factor of 1.8 is calculated in one example representing almost a doubling of local façade design wind pressures. Balcony façade and tower design recommendations to mitigate wind induced aero-acoustic-elastic resonances are provided.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.33-40
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• 2012

To reduce the vulnerability of torsional irregular buildings caused by seismic loads, the torsional amplification factor was introduced by the seismic code. This factor has been applied differently in a variety of seismic codes. In this study, the final static eccentricity, and the lateral and torsional stiffness ratios of buildings designed with different design eccentricities were compared. The increment of the torsional amplification factor resulted in a decrement of the final static eccentricity of the building. However, after reaching the maximum value of this factor, the final static eccentricity of the building increased again. The final static eccentricity of the building designed by multiplying the sum of the inherent and accidental eccentricity by the torsional amplification factor was zero or had a minus value, depending to the position of the vertical element.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.123-128
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• 2020

Analysis of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake and the 2017 Pohang earthquake showed the characteristics of a typical high-frequency earthquake with many high-frequency components, short time strong motion duration, and large peak ground acceleration relative to the magnitude of the earthquake. Domestic nuclear power plants were designed and evaluated based on NRC's Regulatory Guide 1.60 design response spectrum, which had a great deal of energy in the low-frequency range. Therefore, nuclear power plants should carry out seismic verification and seismic performance evaluation of systems, structures, and components by reflecting the domestic characteristics of earthquakes. In this study, high-frequency amplification factors that can be used for seismic verification and seismic performance evaluation of nuclear power plant systems, structures, and equipment were analyzed. In order to analyze the high-frequency amplification factor, five sets of seismic time history were generated, which were matched with the uniform hazard response spectrum to reflect the characteristics of domestic earthquake motion. The nuclear power plant was subjected to seismic analysis for the construction of the Korean standard nuclear power plant, OPR1000, which is a reactor building, an auxiliary building assembly, a component cooling water heat exchanger building, and an essential service water building. Based on the results of the seismic analysis, a high-frequency amplification factor was derived upon the calculation of the floor response spectrum of the important locations of nuclear power plants. The high-frequency amplification factor can be effectively used for the seismic verification and seismic performance evaluation of electric equipment which are sensitive to high-frequency earthquakes.