The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings

doi: 10.1002/tal.1190pmid: N/A

Bai, Z. Z.; Au, F. T. K.; Chen, X. C.

doi: 10.1002/tal.1209pmid: N/A

Summary Small axial forces may appear in beams in a reinforced concrete (RC) structure. The presence of compressive axial force, even at a low level, has an adverse effect on the flexural ductility of RC beams, which is a key attribute for seismic design. For example, Eurocode EN1998‐1 explicitly specifies such minimum flexural ductility, whereas Chinese code GB50011 limits the depth of equivalent rectangular stress block at peak resisting moment to achieve indirectly a certain nominal flexural ductility. Therefore, ignoring the presence of compressive axial force may be risky. In this study, the effect of small compressive axial force on the flexural ductility performance of both normal‐strength and high‐strength concrete beams is evaluated on the basis of a rigorous full‐range moment–curvature analysis. An effective strategy for flexural ductility design of RC beams with small compressive axial force is identified so that various flexural ductility requirements can be satisfied. The essential control parameter proposed is the maximum difference of tension and compression reinforcement ratios. Empirical formulae and tables are developed for convenient implementation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lotfollahi, M.; Banazadeh, M.; Alinia, M.M.

doi: 10.1002/tal.1210pmid: N/A

Summary This paper presents a system reliability‐based framework for collapse fragility assessment of steel braced moment‐resisting frames (BMRFs). The conditional failure of intermediate events is calculated, considering two important features in the design of BMRFs: (i) different failure scenarios (FSs) with multiple sequences of components failure formation and (ii) structural reliability analysis based on the failure propagation from components to system. The system collapse reliability‐based assessment of BMRFs is developed with an efficient algorithm using the Monte Carlo simulation procedure incorporated into a nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis program. An appropriate nonlinear FE model of such systems is demonstrated, and the probability of various predefined components' failure over the most likely FSs in the presence of both epistemic and inherent uncertainties is calculated. Then, a system‐simulated reliability index (SSRI) is computed by lower and upper bounds in the probability of BMRF system collapse. Finally, fragility curves based on the SSRI is compared with the ones from incremental dynamic analysis, and later, the outcomes from multiple FSs are compared with the codified main collapse criterion. For the BMRFs analyzed herein, it is shown that the existing allowable story drift for the collapse limit state is conservative, and a new criterion is appraised. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.