Seismic ductility of base isolated structures

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-56).by Antonio Occhiuzzi.M.S

Applications of Cement-Based Smart Composites to Civil Structural Health Monitoring: A Review

In recent years, cement-based smart composites (CSCs) doped with conductive filler have attracted increasing research interest because of their high potentiality as self-sensing materials for civil Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications. Nevertheless, several issues are still open and need further studies. This paper presents an extensive state-of-the-art in which investigations on CSCs are summarized and critically revised, with the primary aim of outlining the main limits and development points. The literature review first addresses in detail several specific issues related to fabrication and operation as sensing elements of CSC samples. State-of-the-art applications of CSCs to SHM of reduced-, medium- and full-scale structural prototypes are extensively reviewed afterwards, resulting in a database useful to critically revise the main trends and open issues of the research in this field

Hybrid Isolation

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Damage analysis and seismic retrofitting of a continuous prestressed reinforced concrete bridge

SummaryThe seismic analysis and retrofit of prestressed reinforced concrete bridge is discussed by considering a real case of a viaduct still in use. The unique features of this bridge make this type of bridge particularly interesting, either structurally or architecturally. The paper begins with the analysis of certain particular structural deficiencies that emerged during the viaduct operation. The results of the analysis indicate that the structural performance can be enhanced by only modifying the support devices. The primary structural components are not required to be involved in the retrofitting process. Using the modern seismic code, the upgrading of the viaduct performance is obtained by replacing the old bearing devices on the piers and existing viscous dampers connected abutments to the deck with new modernised ones

Experimental behavior of existing RC columns strengthened with HPFRC jacket under concentric and eccentric compressive load

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures built before the 1970 represent a large portion of the existing European buildings stock. Their obsolescence in terms of design criteria, materials, and functionality is becoming a critical issue for guaranteeing adequate compliance with current structural codes. Recently, a new jacketing system based on the use of high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (HPFRC) has been introduced for strengthening existing RC building members. Despite the promising aspects of the HPFRC jacketing technique, currently, a comprehensive and systematic technical framework for its implementation is still missing. In this paper, the experimental performance of RC columns strengthened with the HPFRC jacket subjected to pure axial load and combined axial load-bending moment uncoupled from shear is investigated. The test outcomes confirmed a significant improvement of the structural performance for the strengthened columns, especially for higher values of eccentricity. Finally, a standard-based practice-oriented analytical tool for designing retrofit interventions using the HPFRC jacket is proposed. The comparison between the calculated and experimental results revealed a satisfactory prediction capability