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CONTENTS
Volume 46, Number 2, April25 2013
 

Abstract
Pendulums can be used as passive vibration control devices in several structures and machines. In the present work, the nonlinear behavior of a pendulum-tower system is studied. The tower is modeled as a bar with variable cross-section with concentrated masses. First, the vibration modes and frequencies of the tower are obtained analytically. The primary structure and absorber together constitute a coupled system which is discretized as a two degrees of freedom nonlinear system, using the normalized eigenfunctions and the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The analysis shows the influence of the geometric nonlinearity of the pendulum absorber on the response of the tower. A parametric analysis also shows that, with an appropriate choice of the absorber parameters, a pendulum can decrease the vibration amplitudes of the tower in the main resonance region. The results also show that the pendulum nonlinearity cannot be neglected in this type of problem, leading to multiplicity of solutions, dynamic jumps and instability. In order to improve the effectiveness of the control during the transient response, a hybrid control system is suggested. The added control force is implemented as a non-linear variable stiffness device based on position and velocity feedback. The obtained results show that this strategy of nonlinear control is attractive, has a good potential and can be used to minimize the response of slender structures under various types of excitation.

Key Words
tower; nonlinear oscillations; passive control; pendulum absorber; hybrid control; variable stiffness spring

Address
Diego Orlando and Paulo B. GonCalves: Department of Civil Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 22451-900, Brazil

Abstract
An experimentally measured single footfall trace (SFT) from a walking subject needs to be extended into a continuous force curve, which can then be used as load for floor vibration serviceability assessment, or on which further analysis like discrete Fourier transform can be conducted. This paper investigates the accuracy, applicability and parametrical sensitivity of four extension methods, Methods I to IV, which extends the SFT into a continuous time history by the walking step rate, stride time, double support proportion and the double support time, respectively. Performance of the four methods was assessed by comparing their results with the experimentally obtained reference footfall traces in the time and frequency domain, and by comparing the vibrational response of a concrete slab subjected to the extended traces to that of reference traces. The effect of the extension parameter on each method was also explored through parametrical analysis. This study finds that, in general, Method I and II perform better than Method III and IV, and all of the four methods are sensitive to their extension parameter. When reliable information of walking rate or gait period is available in the test, Methods I or II is a better choice. Otherwise, Method III, with the suggested extension parameter of double support time proportion, is recommended.

Key Words
single footfall trace; extension method; motion capture technology; floor vibration serviceability

Address
Jun Chen, Yixin Peng and Ting Ye: State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University,
200092, Shanghai, P.R. China

Abstract
With more and more high-rise building being constructed in recent decades, bluff body flow with high Reynolds number and large scale dimensions has become an important topic in theoretical researches and engineering applications. In view of mechanics, the key problems in such flow are high Reynolds number turbulence and fluid-solid interaction. Aiming at such problems, a parallel fluid-structure interaction method based on socket parallel architecture was established and combined with the methods and models of large eddy simulation developed by authors recently. The new method is validated by the full two-way FSI simulations of 1:375 CAARC building model with Re = 70000 and a full scale Taipei101 high-rise building with Re = 1e8, The results obtained show that the proposed method and models is potential to perform high-Reynolds number LES and high-efficiency two-way coupling between detailed fluid dynamics computing and solid structure dynamics computing so that the detailed wind induced responses for high-rise buildings can be resolved practically.

Key Words
fluid-structure interaction; computational fluid dynamics; computational structural dynamics; large Eddy simulation; tall building; wind effect

Address
Shenghong Huang and Rong Li: School of Engineering Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, P.R. China
Q.S Li: Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Abstract
Although performance based assessment procedures are mainly developed for reinforced concrete and steel buildings, URM (Unreinforced Masonry) buildings occupy significant portion of buildings in earthquake prone areas of the world as well as in IRAN. Variability of material properties, nonengineered nature of the construction and difficulties in structural analysis of masonry walls make analysis of URM buildings challenging. Despite sophisticated finite element models satisfy the modeling requirements, extensive experimental data for definition of material behavior and high computational resources are needed. Recently, nonlinear equivalent frame models which are developed assigning lumped plastic hinges to isotropic and homogenous equivalent frame elements are used for nonlinear modeling of URM buildings. The equivalent frame models are not novel for the analysis of masonry structures, but the actual potentialities have not yet been completely studied, particularly for non-linear applications. In the present paper an effective tool for the non-linear static analysis of 2D masonry walls is presented. The work presented in this study is about performance assessment of unreinforced brick masonry buildings through nonlinear equivalent frame modeling technique. Reliability of the proposed models is tested with a reversed cyclic experiment conducted on a full scale, two-story URM building at the University of Pavia .The pushover curves were found to provide good agreement with the experimental backbone curves. Furthermore, the results of analysis show that EFM (Equivalent Frame Model) with Dolce RO (rigid offset zone) and shell element have good agreement with finite element software and experimental results.

Key Words
Unreinforced Masonry buildings; equivalent frame modeling; pushover analysis; performance assessment

Address
Mohammad Kheirollahi: Civil Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract
An efficient method is proposed here to identify multiple damage cases in structural systems using the concepts of flexibility matrix and strain energy of a structure. The flexibility matrix of the structure is accurately estimated from the first few mode shapes and natural frequencies. Then, the change of strain energy of a structural element, due to damage, evaluated by the columnar coefficients of the flexibility matrix is used to construct a damage indicator. This new indicator is named here as flexibility strain energy based index (FSEBI). In order to assess the performance of the proposed method for structural damage detection, two benchmark structures having a number of damage scenarios are considered. Numerical results demonstrate that the method can accurately locate the structural damage induced. It is also revealed that the magnitudes of the FSEBI depend on the damage severity.

Key Words
structural damage detection; flexibility matrix; strain energy; modal information

Address
Mehdi Nobahari: Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur Branch, Neyshabur, Iran
Seyed Mohammad Seyedpoor: Department of Civil Engineering, Shomal University, Amol, Iran

Abstract
During preliminary design of a RC building located in a seismic area, having quick but reliable analytical measurement of interstory drifts and storey stiffnesses might be helpful in order to check the fulfillment of damage limit state and stiffness regularity in elevation required by seismic design codes. This paper presents two approximate methods, strongly interrelated each other, and addressed to achieve each of these two purposes for frame buildings. A brief description of some already existing methods addressed to the same aims is included to compare the main differences in terms of general approaches and assumptions. Both new approximate methods are then applied to 9 \'ideal\' frames and 2 \'real\' buildings designed according to the Italian seismic code. The results are compared with the \'exact\' values obtained by the codebased standard calculation, performed via FEM models, showing a satisfactory range of accuracy. Compared with those by the other methods from literature, they indicate the proposed procedures lead to a better approximation of the objective structural parameters, especially for those buildings designed according to the modern \'capacity design\' philosophy.

Key Words
interstory drift; storey stiffness; regularity in elevation; shear type frames; flexural type frames

Address
N. Caterino: Department of Technology, University of Naples \'Parthenope\', Centro Direzionale, Isola C4,
80143 - Naples, Italy
E. Cosenza: Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, via Claudio 21, 80125 - Naples, Italy
B.M. Azmoodeh: Department of Technology, University of Naples \'Parthenope\', Centro Direzionale, Isola C4,
80143 - Naples, Italy


Abstract
This paper is concerned with the determination of exact buckling loads and vibration frequencies of variable thickness isotropic plates using well known finite difference technique. The plates are subjected to uni, biaxial compression and shear loadings and various combinations of boundary conditions are considered. The buckling load is found out as the in plane load that makes the determinant of the stiffness matrix equal to zero and the natural frequencies are found out by carrying out eigenvalue analysis of stiffness and mass matrices. New and exact results are given for many cases and the results are in close agreement with the published results. In this paper, like finite element method, finite difference method is applied in a very simple manner and the application of boundary conditions is also automatic.

Key Words
finite difference; buckling load; natural frequency; stepped plate; stiffened plate; buckling coefficient; frequency parameter

Address
Sundaramoorthy Rajasekaran: Department of Civil Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Tamilnadu, India
Antony John Wilson: Department of Mathematics (Retired), Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract
Steel fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) is a relatively new composite material which congregates the benefits of self-compacting concrete (SCC) technology with the profits derived from the fiber addition to a brittle cementitious matrix. Steel fibers improve many of the properties of SCC elements including tensile strength, toughness, energy absorption capacity and fracture toughness. Modification in the mix design of SCC may have a significant influence on the SFRSCC mechanical properties. Therefore, it is vital to investigate whether all of the assumed hypotheses for steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) are also valid for SFRSCC structures. Although available research regarding the influence of steel fibers on the properties of SFRSCC is limited, this paper investigates material\'s mechanical properties. The present study includes: a) evaluation and comparison of the current analytical models used for estimating the mechanical properties of SFRSCC and SFRC, b) proposing new relationships for SFRSCC mixtures mechanical properties. The investigated mechanical properties are based on the available experimental results and include: compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, strain at peak compressive strength, tensile strength, and compressive and tensile stress-strain curves.

Key Words
steel fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete; compressive strength; modulus of elasticity; tensile strength; compressive and tensile stress-strain curve

Address
Farhad Aslani and Mehrnaz Natoori: Centre for Built Infrastructure Research, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

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