A Simple Critical Response Evaluation Method for Base-Isolation Building-Connection Hybrid System Under Double Impulse as Representative of Near-Fault Ground Motion

We revisit a unique building system including a base-isolation, building-connection hybrid control system. The base-isolation system withstands pulse-type earthquake ground motions effectively and the building-connection system resists long-duration earthquake ground motions efficiently. A simple smart critical response evaluation method without nonlinear time-history response analysis is proposed for this hybrid building system under near-fault ground motions. An analytical expression of the maximum elastic-plastic deformation of a damped bilinear hysteretic single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model under critical double impulse as a representative of pulse-type ground motions derived in our previous paper plays an important role in the development of the simple critical response evaluation method. A two-step transformation procedure into an SDOF model is proposed. The first step is the transformation of the main base-isolated building into an SDOF system and the second step is the reduction of the connecting dampers supported on a sub building to a damper with a sophisticated compensation factor on an assumed rigid wall. The evaluation of damping coefficients with the consideration of yielding of the base-isolation story is a key step in this paper. Different from the previous work, the equivalent damping coefficient is derived depending on the response range before and after yielding of the base-isolation story. This treatment enhances the accuracy of the proposed method. The accuracy and reliability of the proposed response evaluation method is demonstrated by the time-history response analysis of the multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) model.

Estimation of Maximum Drift of MDOF Shear Structures Using Only One Accelerometer

This paper presents a new method to estimate maximum drifts, relative displacements between adjacent floors, of all stories of multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) shear structures using only one floor’s absolute acceleration time history response under the ground excitation. The absolute acceleration and relative displacement are formulated in modal coordinates and the state-space expression is derived. Then the numerical simulation for a three-story structure was conducted to verify the performance of the state-space equation. The comparison of the estimated state and input with actual values is made and shows the good agreement. In addition, the relative displacement time histories of all floors were obtained, and the errors of maximum displacements and inter-story drifts were analyzed. The robustness against environmental noise was also investigated by numerical simulations as well. The results of simulations indicate the estimation is satisfactory, and very robust against the environmental disturbance.

Resilience evaluation and recovery time estimation in multi-storey building models

<p>Time history response analyses under a large-scaled earthquake in 5 multi-story building structural models including seismically isolated structures that were designed based on Japanese building standards are performed. And specific examples of performance degradation and recovery time of those building structural models were shown in linking the concept of resilience to building design. Then, the influence of residual deformation at seismic isolation floor on resilience was described and the limitation of damage parts in the structure and the installation of a monitoring system to shorten the recovery time and increase resilience, were introduced.</p>