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Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings

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A special issue of CivilEng (ISSN 2673-4109).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 19125

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Nelson Lam

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Guest Editor

Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia
Interests: earthquake engineering; impact engineering

Dr. Elisa Lumantarna

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Guest Editor

Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Interests: earthquake engineering in low to moderate seismic regions; mitigation of existing building stock to counter risks of earthquake related damage; cross-laminated timber; durability issues in structures

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In major codes of practice for seismic design, the code stipulated response spectrum model typically gives coverage for a combination of earthquake scenarios in one model. Conservatism is unavoidable. Many codes of practices also contain provisions for an alternative, and much less conservative, design approach which is to design to specific conditions of the building site and projected earthquake scenarios (referred herein as site-specific seismic design).

The site-specific seismic design option has considerable economic incentives, but there is little industry uptake to date mainly because of lack of knowledge amongst building designers on how to operate the procedure, and lack of resources to provide support. There is little coverage in the literature on this topic to address the needs of building designers who operate in regions of low-to-moderate seismicity.

Accelerograms can be scaled according to the site-specific response spectrum model for use in advanced dynamic analyses for obtaining direct predictions of the seismic performance of a building structure. Details of ground shaking in every earthquake are different, and not be repeated in a future event. The behaviour of a structure can be very sensitive to those details. Thus, results from a few isolated dynamic analyses can be misleading. To track the behavioral trends, the same structure need be subject to analyses in a repetitive manner by employing a large number of accelerograms. Resources to address this requirement is also lacking.

This special issue is aimed at filling in the knowledge gaps to facilitate common adoption of site-specific seismic design in regions of low-to-moderate seismicity. Presenting the issue to an open forum would be very beneficial.

Prof. Dr. Nelson Lam
Dr. Elisa Lumantarna
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

site-specific seismic design
site-specific response spectrum
low-to-moderate seismic regions
building structures

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 7947 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nonlinear Dynamic Analyses Utilising Macro-Models of Reinforced Concrete Building Structures and Site-Specific Accelerograms

by Prashidha Khatiwada, Yiwei Hu, Nelson Lam and Scott J. Menegon

CivilEng 2023, 4(3), 881-900; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4030048 - 31 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1375

Abstract

This paper aims to guide structural engineers on how to apply the rapid nonlinear time history analysis (RNLTHA) procedure effectively to predict seismic demand, taking into account ductility and overstrength, and effects of dynamic phenomena including cyclic degradation of strength and stiffness in structures, in a direct and expedient manner. The shortcoming of the conventional force-based approach of design involving the use of a force reduction factor to account for nonlinear effects is well recognised. Nonlinear static (pushover) analysis and dynamic nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) are offered as alternative methods of analysis by major codes of practices to achieve better optimisation in the use of materials. NLTHA has advantages over pushover analysis in being more direct and capable of capturing cyclic response behaviour. Despite the merits of NLTHA, its adoption in the industry has been limited, mainly because of the complexity and the higher analysis cost involved. RNLTHA proposed in this article uses a macroscopic model of the building to fulfil the purpose of NLTHA, whilst saving computational time and achieving a good degree of accuracy, as verified by comparison with results generated from SeismoStruct. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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29 pages, 16923 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Generation of Site-Specific Accelerograms and Response Spectra Involving Sampling Information from Borehole Records

by Yiwei Hu, Nelson Lam, Prashidha Khatiwada, Hing-Ho Tsang and Scott Menegon

CivilEng 2023, 4(3), 827-855; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4030046 - 15 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1336

Abstract

This paper is aimed at serving the needs of structural engineering designers of an important structure (or a group of structures located on the same site) who is seeking guidance on how to obtain accelerograms and/or derive response spectra that accurately represent the site subsoil conditions as informed by the borelogs. The presented site-specific seismic action model may be used to replace the default seismic action model stipulated for the designated site class. Presented in this article is a procedure for generating soil surface motions in an earthquake, and their associated site-specific response spectra, taking into account details of the soil layers. Dynamic site response analyses are involved. The conditional mean spectrum methodology is employed for selecting and scaling accelerograms for obtaining input motion on bedrock. The selection depends on the natural period of both the site and the structure. Multiple borelogs taken from within the same site are analysed to identify the critical soil column models without having to conduct site response analysis on every borelog. The technique for simplifying the soil layers utilising the shear strain profile is introduced to further cut down on the time of analyses. The procedures described in this article have been written into a web-based program that is freely accessible to engineering practitioners. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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29 pages, 15480 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Use of Continuous Wavelet Transform to Generate Endurance Time Excitation Functions for Nonlinear Seismic Analysis of Structures

by Mohammadhossein Mamaghani and Eric M. Lui

CivilEng 2023, 4(3), 753-781; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4030043 - 4 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1607

Abstract

This paper presents the use of continuous wavelet transform (CWT) to capture the frequency contents, spectra of dominant frequencies and associated time durations of real earthquakes for generating artificial excitations to perform endurance time analysis (ETA) of structures. Applying CWT to three sets of forty earthquakes, the 90 percentile frequencies that span the ranges 0.08–18.41 Hz, 0.61–12.73 Hz, and 0.56–15.53 Hz; with associated time durations of 20, 15 and 16 s, respectively, for these earthquake sets are extracted. Artificial excitations that contain these ground motion characteristics are generated, progressively scaled up and applied to the target structure until failure. The scaling used is a block-shaped envelope that increases in size by a factor of 3/2 over time. Nonlinear seismic analyses of a steel frame and a concrete bridge bent using these artificial excitations have shown that the method not only successfully predicts the base shear–roof displacement responses of these structures, it also correctly identifies behavior such as weak story, concrete spalling, and core cracking. When compared with the increment dynamic analysis and time history analysis using multiple earthquakes, the proposed method is capable of producing comparable results with a significant reduction in computational time and a much smaller output file size. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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17 pages, 4445 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Method to Identify the Critical Seismic Input for Curved Bridges

by Chengcheng Tao and Shanyue Guan

CivilEng 2023, 4(2), 567-583; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4020033 - 24 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1132

Abstract

To address the rapidly growing demands of traffic congestion, more highway bridges have been constructed, especially curved bridges. With more curved bridges designed and constructed, people have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the structural performance. Due to the nature of the structural complexity of curved bridges, dynamic responses of the curve bridges vary dramatically from the standard linear bridges. Although some work has been conducted to investigate the curved bridge dynamic analysis under seismic inputs, the framework for analyzing the curved bridges’ vulnerability under various angles of inputs is still lacking. In this paper, we conducted a series of curved bridge seismic analyses based on different inputs and conducted a parametric study of the bridge performance using finite element models. We conducted time history analyses by applying seismic inputs to investigate the bridge dynamic responses based on different angle inputs and other different structural parameters. We developed an approach identifying the most vulnerable direction of the seismic inputs and the strongest dynamic responses for curved bridges based on time series analysis. This approach was validated with the dynamic analysis of a simplified bridge model. The method developed in this paper will help improve the curved bridge design code and further provide suggestions about mitigating seismic response for device design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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22 pages, 9855 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Site-Specific Response Spectra and Accelerograms on Bedrock and Soil Surface

by Yiwei Hu, Prashidha Khatiwada, Hing-Ho Tsang and Scott Menegon

CivilEng 2023, 4(1), 311-332; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010018 - 16 Mar 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1908

Abstract

This paper is aimed at serving the needs of structural engineering researchers who are seeking accelerograms that realistically represent the time histories of earthquake ground in support of their own investigations. Every record is identified with a specific earthquake scenario defined by the magnitude–distance combination and site conditions; the intensity of the presented records is consistent with ultimate limit state design requirements for important structures in an intraplate region. Presented in this article are accelerograms that were generated on the soil surface of two example class C_e sites and two example class D_e sites based on site response analyses of the respective soil column models utilizing bedrock excitations as derived from the conditional mean spectrum (CMS) methodology. The CMS that were developed on rock sites were based on matching with the code spectrum model stipulated by the Australian standard for seismic actions for class B_e sites at reference periods of 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 2 s for return periods ranging from 500 to 2500 years. The reference to Australian regulatory documents does not preclude the adoption of the presented materials for engineering applications outside Australia. To reduce modeling uncertainties, the simulation of the soil surface ground motion is specific to the site of interest and is based on information provided by the borelogs. The site-specific simulation of the strong motion is separate to the CMS-based accelerogram selection–scaling for obtaining the bedrock accelerograms (utilizing strong motion data provided by the PEER). The decoupling of the two processes is a departure from the use of the code site response spectrum models and has the merit of reducing modeling uncertainties and achieving more realistic representation of the seismic actions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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19 pages, 2400 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Beam-Truss Models to Simulate the Axial-Flexural-Torsional Performance of RC U-Shaped Wall Buildings

by Ryan Hoult, António A. Correia and João Pacheco de Almeida

CivilEng 2023, 4(1), 292-310; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010017 - 13 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2153

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) core walls are commonly used to provide buildings with lateral and torsional resistance against the actions of wind and earthquakes. In low-to-moderate seismic regions, it is not unusual to find a single peripheral core wall that alone should resist these actions, where the torsional (rotational) twist cannot be neglected. It has previously been difficult to have confidence in simulating the axial-flexure-torsion behavior of these RC core walls, primarily due to: (i) some types of modelling approaches being unable to appropriately account for the shear-flexural action, as well as torsional response; and (ii) the scarcity of experimental data, particularly for walls under torsional loads, which would be required to validate such models. In this research, beam-truss models (BTMs), which correspond to an interesting compromise between detailed modelling and practical applications, were used to simulate the in-plane and diagonal flexural response of RC U-shaped walls. Furthermore, the global torque-rotation results from a recent experimental wall test provided the evidence to further validate this powerful modelling technique. A case study building, comprising an RC U-shaped core wall structure with varying eccentricity values, was evaluated for an earthquake event with a 2475-year return period in the city of Melbourne, Australia, using the capacity spectrum method. Nonlinear static pushover analyses showed that, depending on the magnitude of torsion, the in-plane flexural strength and displacement capacity can be significantly reduced. The results from this research emphasize the importance of including torsional actions in the design and assessment of reinforced concrete buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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22 pages, 3332 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Site-Specific Seismic Analysis of Buildings Supported by Lightly Reinforced Precast Concrete Walls

by Xiangzhe Weng, Ryan D. Hoult and Elisa Lumantarna

CivilEng 2023, 4(1), 270-291; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010016 - 6 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1806

Abstract

This paper aims to show the application of site-specific response spectra in the analysis of buildings that are supported by lightly reinforced precast concrete walls. Previous surveys on load-bearing precast reinforced concrete walls in multi-storey buildings in low-to-moderate seismic regions have found that many existing precast walls are lightly reinforced with a connection reinforcement ratio less than the wall reinforcement ratio. When these precast walls are subjected to reversed cyclic loads, the lateral response is typically controlled by rocking and the ultimate performance is governed by the ruptures of connection dowels. This paper uses moment–curvature analyses in combination with plastic hinge analyses to evaluate the force–displacement capacity of planar lightly reinforced load-bearing precast walls. The seismic performance of a building supported by these lightly reinforced precast walls can then be assessed by superimposing the capacity curve and the inelastic site-specific response spectra developed for the building site. The proposed analytical approach is illustrated through a case study building. By comparing a lightly reinforced precast wall with a comparable limited ductile reinforced concrete wall, it is also found that, although these two walls exhibit similar force capacities, the ultimate displacement capacity of the lightly reinforced precast wall is significantly lower. This finding highlights the potential seismic vulnerability of lightly reinforced precast walls in some existing buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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22 pages, 9176 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Torsional Amplification of Drift Demand in a Building Employing Site-Specific Response Spectra and Accelerograms

by Yao Hu, Prashidha Khatiwada, Elisa Lumantarna and Hing Ho Tsang

CivilEng 2023, 4(1), 248-269; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010015 - 28 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1508

Abstract

This paper aims at giving structural designers guidance on how to transform seismic demand on a building structure from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) in an expedient manner, taking into account amplification of the torsional actions. This paper is to be read in conjunction with either paper #3 or #4. Torsional amplification of the drift demand in a building is of major concern in the structural design for countering seismic actions on the building. Code-based seismic design procedures based on elastic analyses may understate torsional actions in a plan of asymmetric building. This is because the inability of elastic analyses to capture the abrupt increase in the torsional action as the limit of yield of the supporting structural walls is surpassed. Nonlinear dynamic analysis can provide accurate assessment of torsional actions in a building which has been excited to respond in the inelastic range. However, a 3D whole building analysis of a multi-storey building can be costly and challenging, and hence not suited to day-to-day structural design. To simplify the analysis and reduce the scale of the computation, closed-form expressions are introduced in this paper for estimation of the

Δ_{3 D} / Δ_{2 D}

drift demand ratio for elastic conditions when buildings are subjected to moderate-intensity ground shaking. The drift demand of the 3D model can be estimated as a product of the 2D drift demand and the

Δ_{3 D} / Δ_{2 D}

drift demand ratio. In dealing with higher-intensity ground shaking causing yielding to occur, a macroscopic modelling methodology may be employed. The estimated

Δ_{3 D} / Δ_{2 D}

drift demand ratio of an equivalent single-storey building is combined with separate analysis for determination of the 2D drift demand. The deflection profile of the multi-storey prototype taking into account 3D effects, including torsional actions, is hence obtained. The accuracy of the presented methodologies has been verified by case studies in which drift estimates generated by the proposed calculation procedure were compared against results from whole building analyses, employing a well-established computer software. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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17 pages, 7378 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamic Modal Analyses of Building Structures Employing Site-Specific Response Spectra Versus Code Response Spectrum Models

by Prashidha Khatiwada, Yiwei Hu, Elisa Lumantarna and Scott J. Menegon

CivilEng 2023, 4(1), 134-150; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010009 - 3 Feb 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2265

Abstract

This paper is aimed at giving structural designers guidance on how to make use of elastic site-specific response spectra for the dynamic modal analysis of a structure in support of its structural design. The use of response spectra in support of the pushover analysis of an RC building forming part of the non-linear static analysis procedure (that can be used to predict seismic demand without relying on the code-stipulated default R factor) is also presented. Seismic analysis of structures based on the use of site-specific response spectra can help to achieve a more optimised, and cost-effective, structural design compared to the conventional approach employing a response spectrum model stipulated by the code for different site classes. Currently, the methodology is only adopted in major projects in which enough resources are available to engage experts who are skilled in operating the procedure; thus, the use of site-specific response spectra in structural engineering practice is still limited despite the merits of the procedure. Deriving a site-specific response spectrum requires a database of representative ground motion records to be developed. Extra analytical tasks to be undertaken include the processing of bore log data, site response analyses, and selection/scaling of bedrock accelerograms for input into site response analyses. Guidelines for implementing this design methodology are currently lacking. To promote the wide adoption of site-specific seismic design, this article presents the procedure for developing the required site-specific design spectra, as well as guidelines for applying these spectra for seismic design based on analyses of linear, or nonlinear, models of the building. Non-linear analysis can be accomplished by dealing with macroscopic models as illustrated in a case study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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16 pages, 7829 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seismic Design of Offshore Structures under Simplified Pulse-Like Earthquakes

by Foteini Konstandakopoulou, George Papagiannopoulos, Nikos Pnevmatikos, Konstantinos Evangelinos, Ioannis Nikolaou and George Hatzigeorgiou

CivilEng 2020, 1(3), 310-325; https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng1030020 - 26 Nov 2020

Viewed by 3048

Abstract

Oil and gas offshore structures are essential infrastructures which are subjected to several categories of environmental loads such as wave and wind actions. These loads commonly designate the structural design of offshore platforms. Additionally, several offshore platforms are founded in earthquake-prone areas and the design of them is intensely affected by seismic ground motions. To be sure, various investigations have studied the earthquake response of offshore structures under the action of far-field seismic events. However, the inelastic behavior of platforms under the action of simple pulses has not been examined yet, where the latter loads can successfully simulate near-fault earthquakes. This work investigates, for the first time to our knowledge, the dynamic inelastic response of offshore platforms subjected to triangular, exponential, sinusoidal, and rectangular pulses. Thus, three-dimensional offshore structures are examined also considering the dynamic soil-pile-platform interaction effects, satisfying all the pertinent provisions of European Codes and taking into account geometric and material nonlinearities as well as the effects of the different angles of incidence of seismic waves on the overall/global response of offshore platforms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Site-Specific Seismic Design of Buildings)

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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

The special issue contains articles as outlined in the following to cover different stages of the seismic design and different types of structures:

1) Title: Site-specific response spectra and accelerograms on bedrock and soil surface

Authors: Hu, Yiwei; Lam, Nelson; Khatiwada, Prashidha; Lumantarna, Elisa; Tsang, Hing Ho and Menegon, Scott.

2) Title: Site specific response spectra and accelerograms as derived from processing and analysis of multiple borelog records taken from the same site

Authors: Hu, Yiwei; Lam, Nelson; Khatiwada, Prashidha; Lumantarna, Elisa; Tsang, Hing Ho and Menegon, Scott.

3) Title: Dynamic modal analyses of building structures employing site specific response spectra versus code response spectrum models

Authors: Khatiwada, Prashidha; Hu, Yiwei; Lam, Nelson; Lumantarna, Elisa; Menegon, Scott.

4) Title: Incremental Dynamic Analyses utilizing macro-models of reinforced concrete building structures and site specific accelerograms

Authors: Khatiwada, Prashidha; Hu, Yiwei; Lam, Nelson; Lumantarna, Elisa; Menegon, Scott.

5) Title: Assessment of torsional amplification of drift demand in buildings employing site specific response spectra and accelerograms

Authors: Hu, Yao; Khatiwada, Prashidha; Lumantarna, Elisa; Lam, Nelson; Tsang, Hing Ho

6) Title: Seismic analysis of a reinforced concrete building with a limited ductile eccentric core wall: A case study

Authors: Hoult, Ryan; Almeida, João; Correia, António

7) Title: Site-specific seismic analysis and design of buildings with a transfer structure

Authors: Looi, Daniel, Mehair Yacoubian

8) Title: Influence of site-specific soil conditions on the selection of ground motion intensity measures for constructing fragility curves for unreinforced masonry components

Authors: Vaculik, Jaroslav; Griffith, Michael

9) Title: Site specific seismic design of modular buildings

Authors: Li, Sheng; ; Lam, Nelson and Tsang, Hing Ho

10) Title: Site specific seismic design of buildings supported by precast concrete walls

Authors: Xiangzhe Weng, Lumantarna, Elisa; Hoult, Ryan; Lam, Nelson

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