Current Issue : July-September Volume : 2026 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
Seismic design methods often involve high construction costs and may lead to severe structural damage during strong earthquakes. Energy dissipation technology represents an efficient approach to improving seismic performance through the integration of devices that absorb and dissipate induced seismic energy. This study investigates the seismic behavior of a five-story mixed-use hotel building with and without viscous fluid dampers through advanced numerical modeling using ETABS software, applying static, dynamic, and timehistory analyses and considering representative seismic records from Ica, Peru. The research follows an applied and quantitative approach, in which two structural configurations were modeled to evaluate the efficiency of energy dissipation systems in mitigating seismic effects. The results demonstrate that the incorporation of viscous fluid dampers reduced maximum displacements by 51.12% and interstory drifts by 52.82% along the X–X axis, while absorbing approximately 74% of the induced seismic energy. All structural responses remained within safe performance limits. The findings confirm that viscous dampers substantially enhance structural seismic performance by increasing safety and functionality, and they validate their applicability as an efficient and reliable alternative for mid-rise buildings located in high-seismicity regions....
Wind-induced roof-lifting accidents occur frequently in metal roofs, making the monitoring of wind uplift resistance an important part of building health monitoring. This paper proposes an integrated monitoring and reinforcement method for metal roofs using embedded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) smart rebars, develops smart rebars with both sensing and load-bearing functions, and conducts wind uplift tests in accordance with relevant standards. The experimental results show that: 1. The smart rebar can achieve high-frequency real-time monitoring at 100 Hz, accurately capture the dynamic force characteristics of the roof panel throughout the wind load application process, and precisely locate the damaged area. 2. The smart rebar and the roof panel form an integrally stressed “rebar–panel” system. Under wind load, they deform coordinately; the smart rebar uniformly transfers the load from local high-stress areas to the entire roof system, optimizing the force transmission path and avoiding premature damage caused by local stress exceeding the limit. During the experiment, it effectively restricts the deformation of the decorative panel and prevents secondary damage caused by “splashing”. 3. Based on the experimentally measured strain data and the degree of roof damage, a graded-control index system is established with a “first-level alarm threshold of 1800 με, second-level alarm threshold of 2400 με, and third-level alarm threshold of 3000 με”. Each level of alarm corresponds to relevant disposal measures, realizing closed-loop management from data monitoring to risk response. The smart rebar system serves both load-bearing and sensing functions, fulfilling the practical engineering needs of monitoring and enhancing the roof, thereby achieving the dual purposes of monitoring and reinforcement....
Composite soil–steel corrugated bridges, which are widely used in road, railway, and civil engineering, are recognized as durable, sustainable, and cost-effective structures. Due to their interactions with the surrounding soil, relatively thin corrugated steel plates are usually used in these bridges. Larger spans are associated with larger cross-sections, and deep corrugations with a 500 mm pitch and a 237 mm depth are already in use worldwide. However, the behavioral benefits of high-strength steel and additional strengthening elements for CSS structures have rarely been investigated with regard to local buckling in the straight regions of the corrugation. This study analyzed the influence of high-strength steel and innovative corrugated cross-sections strengthened with circular steel pipes on the utilization ratio of steel plates in composite soil–steel structures. Two-dimensional numerical models of three bridges with spans of 26 m, 17.5 m, and 12 m and surrounded by soil were developed to identify internal forces from permanent and temporary actions. Plate utilization was designed according to the Swedish, Canadian, and American methods, considering local buckling in the 500 × 237 mm and 381 × 140 mm corrugation profiles. It was found that the use of higher-strength steel material, as well as the introduction of steel pipes, significantly reduced the plate thickness of regular corrugations. The results show that the use of higher-strength steel reduced the cross-section area of regular and innovative corrugations by 30–40%. Moreover, the cross-section area of the innovative profile was 5% to 36% lower than that of the regular corrugation profile. Nevertheless, the results show that the local buckling approach proposed by the Swedish design method could be considered conservative and should be revised. In addition, the method of preventing local buckling by reducing the plastic moment capacity could be neglected when using thicker plates and lower steel grades....
The effective bending stiffness formula for cross-sections of timber–concrete composite (TCC) beams was derived under semi-sinusoidal loading condition in Eurocode 5; however, this formula does not account for the non-uniform distribution of bending stiffness along the span. This limitation prevents it from characterizing the mechanical behavior under real loading conditions, which could potentially compromise the safety and serviceability of the structural design. To investigate the distribution pattern of bending stiffness, differential segment analysis was conducted, incorporating interfacial slip effects. A governing differential equation for curvature was established, and the resulting curvature distribution was used to compute deflections by means of the conjugate beam method. The results demonstrate that the bending stiffness distribution depends critically on shear connector arrangement and loading conditions. Under third-point loading, the bending stiffness monotonically decreases from the mid-span to the load application points and increases toward the supports. Under uniform loads, bending stiffness peaks at the mid-span and declines gradually toward the supports. Reducing shear connector spacing enhances composite action while amplifying bending stiffness non-uniformity. Experimental validation confirms that both the conjugate beam method (using analytical curvature solutions) and the simplified approach in Eurocode 5 achieve 99% average accuracy in predicting the midspan deflection of TCC beams. In addition, careful attention must be paid to the deflection values at loading points, particularly when the loading position is close to the supports....
This paper proposes a power-based optimization procedure to identify the optimal number and vertical placement of buckling restrained brace (BRB) outrigger systems for enhancing the seismic performance of core-wall-dominated benchmark model. The proposed method is validated using a nine-zone numerical model subjected to nonlinear time-history analysis implemented in MATLAB R2025.a (25.1.0.2943329). The optimization variables include the number and locations of outriggers as well as the stiffness of the BRBs, while the objective function is defined as the minimization of the maximum inter-story drift response. Outriggers are installed between zones 2 and 9, with each zone subdivided into five potential outrigger levels located 150 mm above the floor level, resulting in 40 potential outrigger placement scenarios. The total number of outriggers is constrained to range from one to eight, with at most one outrigger allowed per zone. Optimal outrigger–BRB configurations are identified by incrementally distributing BRB stiffness at the perimeter column-outrigger connection regions using a power-based allocation strategy. At each optimization step, the proposed framework evaluates only one candidate configuration per eligible story and outrigger level, resulting in several nonlinear time-history analysis grows linearly with the number of candidate locations. This contrasts with the combinatorial growth in computational demand typically associated with exhaustive or evolutionary optimization methods and leads to a significant reduction in overall computational efforts....
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