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Base isolation of buildings is the most efficient way of designing seismically resistant structures. Application of seismic isolators allows mutually independent movements of the ground and the structure during earthquakes. The application of seismic isolators increases the natural period of vibrations, which reduces the seismic forces in the structure. The paper analyzes the influence of the application of lead rubber bearings on the response of the structure to the action of an earthquake. A reinforced concrete frame structure was analyzed both for the case of base isolation and rigid foundation. Based on the comparative analysis of the natural period of vibrations, base shear seismic forces, displacement of the top level of the structure and relative inter-storey drift, conclusions were drawn about the efficiency of application of this type of seismic isolator. The required amount of ductility of a structure, as well as damage to structural and non-structural elements, is greatly reduced by base isolation.

Steel lattice towers have large application in meteorology, and are regularly exposed to loads difficult to determine reliably, like wind and ice, and especially wind gusts and accompanied structural vibrations. EN 1993-3-1 treats such structures and requires checking of vibrations, but does not supply methodology for it, neither allowed values for deformation and vibrations. The paper presents analysis of a tower 110 m high using the Finite Element Method (FEM), in case of wind gust, for iced and non-iced structure, both statically and dynamically. The results were compared and recommendations for future treatment of such sensitive structures were given.

The aspect of resonant vibrations due to pedestrian movement is of great significance in engineering practice. Therefore, understanding the variations in the natural frequency of bridge structures under varying positions of additional mass is of particular interest. This paper presents a procedure for the straightforward determination of the natural frequencies of a beam pedestrian bridge for various positions of pedestrians or a service vehicle based on derived analytical solutions. The calculation takes into account the inertial effects of the additional load mass, modeled as either uniformly distributed or concentrated. The importance of additional load mass effects on the fundamental frequency of a beam pedestrian bridge and its dynamic response to a moving pedestrian load is demonstrated on a bridge example. The proposed solutions are also applicable to other girder system structures with uniform mass and stiffness along their span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prismatic fixed-end beams with circular cross-section are often used in engineering. Therefore, there is a need for a solution of an elastoplastic deflection of prismatic fixed-end beams with circular cross-section loaded by lateral displacement at one end of the beam, which is suitable for practical use. The elastoplastic deflection beam theory does not provide a solution in a closed form for such a problem. Hence, a semi-analytical solution is proposed in this paper. Homogenous and isotropic beams with the bilinear elastoplastic strain hardening behaviour are covered in the proposed solution. The elastic deflection of a beam is determined by the Bernoulli–Euler formula. However, differential equation of beam bending in the plastic domain of material behaviour does not have a solution in a closed form. Therefore, an incremental procedure for determining the curvature of the plasticised region of the beam is suggested. The proposed semi-analytical solution is validated by comparing to the finite element analysis results of 16 different fixed-end beam models with varying geometric and material characteristics. Also, validation is done with experimental results of the bar damper device, available in the literature, which has been selected as a sample of a real engineering system where the proposed solution can be applied. A satisfying agreement between the proposed semi-analytical results and the subsequent numerical and experimental results is herein achieved, confirming the solution's reliability. Finally, a parametric study is conducted using the proposed semi-analytical solution in order to determine the influence of geometrical parameters and material characteristics on the mechanical properties of prismatic fixed-end beams with circular cross-section loaded by lateral displacement at one end of the beam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The double strap joint splicing of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars for reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthening, applying the near surface mounting (NSM) method, has been proposed in the paper. The proposed method consists of application of the supplementary GFRP bars symmetrically positioned in the cut-off zone of the main GFRP reinforcement. The performances of this splicing method have been experimentally tested for the most unfavorable case of the GFRP reinforcement cut-off in the maximal bending moment zones. During the experiment, the varied parameter has been overlapping length of the bars, taking values of 20Ø and 40Ø. Evaluation of the splicing technique is done comparing the experimental results with the results of the behavior of beams strengthened by GFRP bars without cut-off and with cut-off, but without splicing. Experimental research encompassed analysis of strength, stiffness, ductility, crack pattern, strains in the steel, GFRP reinforcement and concrete, and the failure modes of the beams. It has been shown that in case of the cut-off of the GFRP bar, strengthening effectivity decreases for 39%, and that in the case of bypassing the cut-off using double strap 20Ø and 40Ø long, strengthening effectivity decreased 23%, and 14% respectively, compared to the beam without GFRP bar cut-off. Using extrapolation, it has been shown that double strap with length of 60Ø provided strength equivalent to the case without cut-off. The result of application of this splicing method of the additional GFRP bars is significant increase of strength and serviceability of the strengthened RC beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel-timber composite structures have numerous advantages compared to steel only and timber only structures. One of the most important parts of a composite structure is the composite connection. Object of this research was a steel-CLT composite connection consisting of a steel profile, a cross-laminated timber (CLT) panel and a bolt with nut and washer. Aim of the research was to develop an efficient finite element (FE) model of a bolted steel-CLT composite connection and to validate it experimentally. The research process consisted of several steps: experimental testing of the considered connection using asymmetrical push-out test, numerical modelling and analysis of the connection using Finite Element Method (FEM), validation of the numerical model using experimental results, and parametric study of the proposed numerical model. For numerical analysis, an innovative method for timber modelling has been proposed. The comparison between the experimental and numerical research results demonstrated that the proposed numerical model was convenient for practical application in structure analyses. The parametric study showed that, in some cases, atypical failure modes of the connection occurred. Based on registered behavior, a recommendation is given to calculate the load capacity of the connection integrally, taking into account both the primary (Johansen's) and the secondary (rope effect) part of the connection strength, instead partially, as proposed by EN standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of systems for passive vibration control is an efficient way for seismic protection of structures. Systems for passive vibration control consist of seismic isolation devices and energy dissipation devices. Base isolation of structures is a concept where devices for passive vibration control are placed in foundations of buildings. Various energy dissipation devices have been developed and tested so far, while metallic dampers represent a significant class. Those devices dissipate energy through the yield of metal material which they are made of. The metallic dampers have often been used because of their main advantages reflected in stable hysteretic behavior and well-known models for analytical prediction of the dissipated energy and structural response. Most of the metallic dampers have been developed for application in the beam-column joints or in the bracing system. The innovative energy dissipation device named multi-gap multi-level multi-directional seismic energy absorber, intended for the application in the horizontal seismic dilatation in the system of base isolation, has been developed recently by the group of the authors among whom is one of the authors of this paper. The main parts of the absorber are vertical components with linearly changeable circular cross-section. Due to the lateral displacements of the isolated structure the vertical components bend and energy dissipation is provided by yielding of the steel material they are made of. According to the previous experimental and numerical study of the absorber's vertical components, three-dimensional finite element model of the absorber has been developed and presented in this paper. The aim of the numerical analysis is to determine mechanical properties of the absorber based on the lateral force-displacement diagram. Furthermore, a simplified numerical model using one-dimensional beam finite elements has been proposed. The performance of the absorber has been determined using the available semianalytical solution for elastoplastic deflection of non-prismatic cantilever beams previously developed by the first author as well. The obtained results have been compared and it has been concluded that all three modelling approaches provide reliable mechanical properties of the absorber necessary for dynamic analysis of structures in engineering practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of the cut-off splicing of an additional fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bar in the near-surface mounted (NSM) technique for reinforced concrete (RC) beam strengthening exposed dominantly to bending is insufficiently investigated. A possible solution of this issue is a new proposed technique: a double-strap joint. It implies the widening of the groove at the cut-off location and the symmetrical installing of additional supplements of FRP reinforcement. In this research, beam strength has been determined for the following cases: additional NSM FRP reinforcement without a cut-off, with a cut-off, and without overlapping, and with different lengths of splice overlapping. A nonlinear analysis based on the finite element method (FEM) has been applied. The length of the cut-off splice of the additional FRP reinforcement with glass fibers (GFRP) was 20Ø, 40Ø, and 60Ø. The validation of the numerical model and a comparison of the results were conducted by using the authors' experiments. It has been shown that, in the case of a cut-off of NSM GFRP bars, a significant loss in strengthening efficiency occurs, and that, with an increase in the overlapping length, this loss decreases. An overlapping length of 60Ø provides full strengthening. An efficiency assessment was carried out via the use of a parametric study, varying the FRP bar material type and its diameter for a constant splicing length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of this paper is experimental and numerical analysis of the impact strength of unreinforced concrete slabs. Impact strength of concrete is significant in case of some accidental loads during exploitation. Impact strength can be determined experimentally, using Drop-weight test, Charpy test, Projectile impact test, Explosive test, etc. In this research, a numerical model for determining the impact strength of concrete slabs based on Finite element method (FEM) and high-end engineering software has been proposed. Modelling approach to this problem was applying the Explicit dynamics FEM analysis. Thereat, two different existing material models for concrete were enforced: Concrete damage plasticity model – CDP (implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit software), and the Riedel-Hiermaier-Thoma model – RHT (implemented in ANSYS Workbench software). Analysis parameters for both material models, necessary as input data, have been determined through a series of FEM analyses and validated by performed experiments, using drop-weight test. Results of the numerical analyses have been compared with the experimental ones, as well as mutually. Advantages and drawbacks of both material models are highlighted, as well as the reliability of the proposed numerical models. The proposed numerical FE models, confirmed by experiments, can be successfully used for determining impact strength of concrete slabs in further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this work is to test the possibility of a newly introduced constitutive law to model the behaviour of the isotropic elastic-perfectly plastic material which is exposed to large elastoplastic deformations. The proposed constitutive relation is based on the hypo-elastic relation and the inelastic INTERATOM model. The verification of the model is done by its implementation into the commercial software ABAQUS/Standard via the user subroutine UMAT. For that purpose, the large simple shear problem is studied where selected objective corotational rates, i.e. the logarithmic rate, the Jaumann rate and the Green-Naghdi rate, are individually implemented in the aforementioned constitutive relations. The obtained results are compared mutually and with the relevant literature. The proposed constitutive model is also used to test the behaviour of the part of a real engineering structure, i.e. a seismic isolator, in order to obtain the correct input data for further analysis of superstructure behaviour due to seismic excitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]