In recent years, super high-rise buildings (>500 m) are developing very quickly and become an important frontier of civil engineering. The collapse resistance of super high-rise buildings subjected to extremely strong earthquake is a critical problem that must be intensively studied. This paper builds up a nonlinear finite element model of the tallest building in China, Shanghai Tower (632 m), and proposes the modeling method and failure criteria for different structural elements. The dynamic characters of this building are then analyzed, and the possible failure modes and collapse processes due to earthquakes are predicted, as well as the corresponding collapse mechanism. This work will be helpful in collapse prevention and the seismic design of super high-rise buildings.

Collapse simulation of a super high-rise building subjected to extremely strong earthquakes

According to the Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (GB50011-2001), ten typical reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures, used as school classroom buildings, are designed with different seismic fortifi cation intensities (SFIs) (SFI=6 to 8.5) and different seismic design categories (SDCs) (SDC=B and C). The collapse resistance of the frames with SDC=B and C in terms of collapse fragility curves are quantitatively evaluated and compared via incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). The results show that the collapse resistance of structures should be evaluated based on both the absolute seismic resistance and the corresponding design seismic intensity. For the frames with SFI from 6 to 7.5, because they have relatively low absolute seismic resistance, their collapse resistance is insuffi cient even when their corresponding SDCs are upgraded from B to C. Thus, further measures are needed to enhance these structures, and some suggestions are proposed.

Evaluation of collapse resistance of RC frame structures for Chinese schools in seismic design categories B and C

Structural progressive collapse is a great threat to life safety and therefore it is necessary to study its mechanism in detail. Numerical simulation is significant to study the whole process of progressive collapse in structural level. Since collapse is a complicated procedure from continuum into discrete fragments, numerical model should be competent in nonlinear deformation before collapse and breaking and crashing of fragments after collapse. Coupled Finite elementdiscrete element method on simulating structural progressive collapse is proposed to meet the requirements. Relatively accurate models, such as fiber model and multi-shell shell model, are introduced to construct the finite element model of structure. In the analysis, the failed finite elements will be removed and replaced with granular discrete elements according to the criteria of equivalent total mass and volume so that the impacting and heaping of fragments can be taken into account. The sample with the coupled method shows that this method not only possesses the advantages of finite element method but also simulates the behavior of fragments well.

/pdf/simulation-of-structural-collapse-with-coupled-finite-2queeabtcb.pdf

Simulation of Structural Collapse with Coupled Finite Element-Discrete Element Method

Cyclic loading tests and finite element analyses on performance of ring beam connections

Reponses of structures subjected to severe earthquakes sometimes significantly surpass what was considered in the design. It is important to investigate the failure mechanism and collapse margin of structures beyond design, especially for high-rise buildings. In this study, steel high-rise buildings using either square concrete-filled-tube (CFT) columns or steel tube columns are designed. A detailed three-dimensional (3D) structural model is developed to analyze the seismic behavior of a steel high-rise towards a complete collapse. The effectiveness is verified by both component tests and a full-scale shaking table test. The collapse margin, which is defined as the ratio of PGA between the collapse level to the design major earthquake level (Level 2), is quantified by a series of numerical simulations using incremental dynamic analyses (IDA). The baseline building using CFT columns collapsed with a weak first story mechanism and presented a collapse margin ranging from 10 to 20. The significant variation in the collapse margin was caused by the different characteristics of the input ground motions. The building using equivalent steel columns collapsed earlier due to the significant shortening of the locally buckled columns, exhibiting only 57% of the collapse margin of the baseline building. The influence of reducing the height of the first story was quite significant. The shortened first story not only enlarged the collapse margin by 20%, but also changed the collapse mode.

Zhence Wang

Papers

Evaporation heat transfer characteristics and correlation for R410A-oil flow boiling in 7 mm C-shape horizontal smooth tube