The Engineer's Role in Reducing Curtainwall Failures
For a variety of reasons, engineers have abdicated responsibility for curtainwall design. Failures of curtainwall components are very common, leading to expensive repairs and even complete...
Things That Fall?Lessons from Some Construction Accidents and Structural Failures
The causes and results of several construction accidents are reviewed. The lessons to be learned from such a summary are that all too often the simplest oversight leads to catastrophic...
Tuned Mass Damper in Tall Building Design
Viscoelastic dN and tuned mass dampers are often used by tall building designers to control wind-induced building vibrations resulting from such phenomena as vortex shedding, galloping,...
Vortex Shedding Induced Fatigue Fracture of Mast Tower
The fracture of a pair of 60m high circular steel masts is investigated. The design criteria and fabrication practices are reviewed. The cause of failure is related to the fatigued condition...
A California Tower: Response to Seismic Forces
First Interstate World Center is a signature building for the city of Los Angeles. The granite clad tower with its serrated facade rises 1,018 ft. above street level. It is the tallest...
85 Stories in Kuala Lumpur?The 5th and 6th Tallest Buildings in the World
A concrete core and cylindrical concrete tube structure provides a safe, elegant, efficient and constructible solution to the challenge of designing the world's 5th and 6th tallest buildings,...
Seismic Behavior of High Strength Concrete Columns
Information on the ductility of high strength columns in seismic areas has been scarce. The available information is based mainly on small test columns subjected to monotonic concentric...
Seismic Vulnerability and Upgrading of Nonductile Reinforced Concrete Frames Using Passive Supplemental Dampers
The effects of vulnerable details of lightly reinforced concrete frames constructed prior to the 1970s is evaluated from tests conducted of two beam/slab/column subassemblages drawn from...
Orthotropic Rigidities of Curved Concrete Waffle Slabs
Analytical expressions are derived for predicting the flexural and torsional rigidities during the pre-cracking and post-cracking stages for horizontally- curved waffle slab structures....
Seismic Strengthening of Johnstown Tank in Lakeside, California
Seismic overturning moments exerted on liquid storage tanks may be resisted by a system of anchor bolts if the shell could be adequately anchored to its base, or by allowing the base plate...
Tuned Mass Dampers for Towers and Buildings
Tuned mass dampers (TMD's) are used to reduce the response of tall slender structures to resonant wind-induced oscillations. This paper reviews the authors' experience with the design...
Structural Design and Wind Resistance of Fukuoka Tower with T.M.D.
Fukuoka Tower, which was built in 1989, was projected as a monument, a observation tower and a broadcasting antenna with 234m high. In this tower, a Tuned Mass Damper(TMD) was set, in...
Long-Span Design for Seismic Forces?A Case Study of the Anaheim Arena
The design for the Anaheim Arena roof evolved in response to the strict requirements for a structure in a seismic zone 4 location. The support of the 329 ft. (100 m) by 444 ft. (135 m)...
Dynamic In-Plane Racking Tests of Curtain Wall Glass Components
This paper is concerned with the seismic performance of 'architectural.' or 'non-structural' building elements such as glass elements in curtain wall systems. A pilot study was undertaken...
Blast-Damaged Concrete Structures in Beirut
This paper describes the effect of blasting loads on structural members. It identifies predominant structural systems in war-damaged zones of Beirut and to explain typical damage mechanisms....
Structural Response Using Stiffness Decoupler
The structural properties of a new stiffness decoupler developed by Hu, Kirmser and Swartz at Kansas State University, and its applications as an energy absorber and a device to isolate...
Steel Plate Energy Absorbers for Improved Earthquake Resistance
This paper discusses results of an combined experimental and analytical investigation on seismic response of frame structures using welded steel triangular plates as added damping and...
Robust Control for Buildings Under Earthquake
Robust control techniques are applied to civil engineering structures subjected to earthquake excitation. Full state feedback and observer based control laws are used to reduce the response...
Earthquake Dampers Used for Seismic Retrofit of Building in San Francisco
For the first time ever in the United States, earthquake supplemental damping devices have been installed in a building in San Francisco. The devices used are Added Damping and Stiffness...
Passive Energy Dissipation Systems for Earthquake-Resistant Design
Passive energy dissipation devices, also known as supplemental damping devices, have been proposed as a means by which the earthquake resistance of a building can be substantially enhanced,...
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