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This paper presents a systematic evaluation approach that allows the design professional to estimate the performance of damaged buildings subjected to sets of ground motions representing different hazard levels. The performance of damaged buildings for a future seismic event prior to repair and/or rehabilitation was evaluated using an elastic model and stiffness of the structure. The linear static model using the damaged state of brittle fractured connections in steel moment resisting frame buildings provides a reasonable estimation of the interstory drift of the damaged buildings when compared to nonlinear time history analysis. Then, this result was incorporated in a reliability-based procedure that provides a degree of confidence that a building before and after the damage will exceed the given performance levels. Finally, examples of confidence level calculations are presented. The results showed that the linear static model and the performance evaluation procedure are very useful and allow the design professional to determine the level of safety of damaged buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a medium-to-large earthquake, there are often reports of people being trapped or injured in elevators. This study investigates using an earthquake early warning (EEW) system, which provides seconds to tens of seconds warning before seismic waves arrive at a site, to help people escape from the elevators before a strong shaking arrives. However, such an application remains as a major engineering challenge due to the uncertainty of the EEW information and the short lead time available. A recent study presented an earthquake probability- based automated decision-making (ePAD) framework to address these issues. This paper focuses on studying the influence of two commonly ignored factors, uncertainty of warning and lead time, on the decision of stopping the elevators and opening the doors when an EEW message is received. Application of the ePAD framework requires using the performance-based earthquake engineering methodology for elevator damage prediction, making decision based on a cost-benefit model and reducing computational time with a surrogate model. The authors' results show that ePAD can provide rational decisions for elevator control based on EEW information under different amounts of lead time and uncertainty level of the warning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete-filled steel tubular columns have been studied extensively worldwide. Such columns provide stable energy dissipation, which is ideal for earthquake engineering application. However, most applications use rectangular steel tubular sections. In the location of wall intersections, these sections often create sharp corners, which are architecturally displeasing. In some facilities such as schools and correctional facilities, sharp corners are even prohibited due to their potential hazard to occupants. To resolve the issue, concrete-filled crisscross steel tubular columns (CCSTCs) have been proposed. Three half-scaled specimens were constructed and tested under cyclic displacement loading history. The experimental results were used to calibrate numerical models of the components and further used to examine the seismic behavior of a three-story prototype office building located in Los Angeles. The results showed the proposed CCSTC has excellent energy dissipation and postearthquake performance, and hence it can be used as an alternative lateral force resisting system for seismic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]