Pushover Analyses of Hand-Loaded Steel Storage Shelving Racks

Among the various types of industrial solutions used to store goods and products, the light duty hand loaded shelving rack (SR) typology represents a very popular solution for domestic applications, libraries and for superstores/markets open to the public. Despite the limited cost, an eventual collapse could result in significant damage of stored goods, injuries, and potentially the loss of human life, with the possible consequence of a long suspension of commercial activities. This reflects directly on the great importance of a correct design that, despite the large use of SRs, is nowadays developed with approaches characterized by inadequate levels of reliability.

A research program on SRs is currently in progress in Italy, with the aim of improving the rules for both static and seismic design and this article presents a combined experimental-numerical study. Both component and pushover tests have been carried out, that are shortly summarized. Overall frame response has been simulated by means of advanced finite element software able to capture key features of the nonlinear response of slender frames with mono-symmetric cross-section members.     

传统方法加固馆藏浮放文物抗震性能试验

为探索馆藏浮放文物的有效抗震加固方法,采用振动台试验手段,研究了传统方法加固浮放文物的抗震性能。基于故宫博物院某展柜原型尺寸,制作了1:1比例陈列柜模型。在陈列柜内浮放一轻质陶瓷文物,分别考虑采用砂子、塑料卡、鱼线、橡皮泥及磁铁加固文物,进行了振动台试验。通过白噪声激励,获得了陈列柜基频分布;通过输入不同强度、不同类型的地震波,获得了不同方法加固条件下陈列柜和文物的位移响应、加速度响应和和动力放大系数,评价了不同方法的加固效果。结果表明:陈列柜的基频与输入地震波相差较大,这是陈列柜震害不明显的主要原因之一;传统方法加固文物后,输入地震波的加速度仍有一定放大,但是与加固前文物相比,文物的位移和加速度响应均有所减小,且文物因摇晃幅度而产生倾覆的可能性减小。此外,从减小文物加速度响应峰值角度考虑,橡皮泥和鱼线加固文物效果优于其它方法。试验结果可为文物防震保护研究提供较全面的参考。     

Full-Scale Shaking Table Tests on a Substandard RC Building Repaired and Strengthened with Post-Tensioned Metal Straps

The effectiveness of a novel Post-Tensioned Metal Strapping (PTMS) technique at enhancing the seismic behavior of a substandard RC building was investigated through full-scale, shake-table tests during the EU-funded project BANDIT. The building had inadequate reinforcement detailing in columns and joints to replicate old construction practices. After the bare building was initially damaged significantly, it was repaired and strengthened with PTMS to perform additional seismic tests. The PTMS technique improved considerably the seismic performance of the tested building. While the bare building experienced critical damage at an earthquake of PGA = 0.15 g, the PTMS-strengthened building sustained a PGA = 0.35 g earthquake without compromising stability.     

Fuzzy-Sliding-Mode Supervisory Control of a Seismic Shake Table with Variable Payload for Robust and Precise Acceleration Tracking

Precise tracking of the earthquake acceleration profile in the presence of uncertainties is a challenge for the shake table control design. Design and implementation of a fuzzy-sliding-mode super- visory controller for an electric seismic shake table with variable payload is addressed in this paper. The proposed controller contains two layers including a proportional–integral loop and a fuzzy-sliding-mode supervisory controller. The controller is then implemented in the shake table and its performance is evaluated. The test results reveal successful performance of the proposed controller at robust tracking of some harmonic and seismic excitations in the presence of parametric uncertainties.     

Seismic Response of Secondary Systems Supported by Torsionally Yielding Structures

Substantial damage sustained during several recent earthquakes was non structural in nature. The economic consequence in terms of non structural component damage far exceeded the structural damage. Currently, there are several analytical studies that address the interaction between non structural components or Secondary systems (S-systems) and the main supporting structure or Primary system (P-system). Only a few of these analytical approaches have been proposed to evaluate and characterize the response of the S-systems attached to torsionally coupled P-systems. In addition, the experimental verification for the analytical approaches is scarce.

In the current study, the results and observations of an experimental research program conducted to characterize the behavior of both stiffness eccentric and mass eccentric torsionally coupled Primary-Secondary systems (PS-systems) are presented. From this experimental investigation it was found that the torsional yielding of the primary system has significant implications on the deamplification of near tuned secondary system response. The location of the S-system mounted on the P-system affects the peak response amplification, and interaction with the coupled P-system.     

Lessons Learned from Seismic Analysis of a Seven-Story Concrete Test Building

A uniaxial shake table test of a full-scale slice of a seven-story reinforced concrete wall building was performed at the University of California, San Diego. A 2D analytical model that primarily employed fiber-based beam-column elements was used for a blind prediction of the global response of the building to the imposed input accelerations. An improved analytical model, which adequately simulates the building's dynamic response and comparison of measured and analytical results, is presented. The lessons learned from participation in the blind prediction with particular attention to the effects of issues commonly ignored in analytical modeling of concrete buildings are included.     

Direct Acceleration Feedback Control of Shake Tables with Force Stabilization

This study presents a new strategy for shake table control that uses direct acceleration feedback without need for displacement feedback. To ensure stability against table drift, force feedback is incorporated. The proposed control strategy was experimentally validated using the shake table at the Johns Hopkins University. Experimental results showed that the proposed control strategy produced more accurate acceleration tracking than conventional displacement-controlled strategies. This article provides the control architecture, details of the controller design, and experimental results. Furthermore, the impact of input errors in shake table testing on the structural response is also discussed.     

Application of In-Test Model Updating to Earthquake Structural Assessment

Analytical methods are frequently utilized for structural assessment due to their simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, modeling of material inelasticity and geometric nonlinearity under reversed inelastic deformations is still very challenging and its accuracy is difficult to quantify. On the other hand, realistic experimental assessment is costly, time-consuming, and impractical for large or spatially extended structures. Hybrid simulation has been developed as an approach that combines the realism of experimental techniques with the economy of analytical tools. In hybrid simulation, the structural is divided into several modules such that the critical components are tested in the laboratory, while the rest of the structure is simulated numerically. The equations of motion solved in the computer enable the integration of the analytical and experimental components at each time increment. The objective of this article is to apply a newly developed identification and model updating scheme to acquire the material constitutive relationship from the physically tested specimen during the analysis to two complex hybrid simulation case studies. The identification scheme is developed and verified in a companion article, while the two experiments presented in this article are selected such that they address different structural engineering applications. First, a beam-column steel connection with heat treated beam section is analyzed. Afterwards, the response of a multi-bay concrete bridge is investigated. The results of these two examples demonstrate the effectiveness of model updating to improve the numerical model response as compared to the conventional hybrid simulation approaches.     

Experimental Analysis of Bolted Steel Beam-to-Column Connections: Component Identification

In this paper, the results of an experimental program dealing with the ultimate behavior of bolted beam-to-column connections under cyclic actions are presented. The design criteria adopted for tested specimens are discussed in detail, aiming to point out how the ultimate behavior can be governed by properly strengthening the components for which yielding has to be prevented. To this scope, the component approach is adopted as a design tool for component hierarchy criteria. The aim of the paper is the investigation of the actual possibility of extending the component approach to the prediction of the cyclic response of beam-to-column joints. To this scope, the attention has been focused on the possibility to evaluate the overall energy dissipation capacity starting from the energy dissipation of the single joint components, provided that they are properly identified and their cyclic behavior is properly measured.