Vol.30/No.1 (117) (2015)
| Title | A Study on the Possible Liability of Defective Structural Design |
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| Author | Yen-An Shieh |
| Keywords | |
| Abstract | Structural designers in the engineering consultants or the professional Engineering offices design for construction by construction company. Will the designers need to bear civil compensation due to engineering defects? How the court finds responsibility? The author cites the judgment of the civil court. The judge in the case considered the contract information, appraisement report, witness’s statement and so on to judge designers with 20% responsibility. It should be worth considering. Finally, the author determines how to resolve accountability of the construction controversies in the civil court , and provides designers the considering points in work in order to protect their own rights. |
| Title | Seismic design and applications of buckling-restrained braced frames |
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| Author | An-Chien Wu , Ming-Chieh Chuang , Pao-Chun Lin , Keh-Chyuan Tsai |
| Keywords | buckling-restrained brace, hysteretic damper, effective stiffness, gusset connection, frame action effect, seismic design, capacity design |
| Abstract | Buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) can be conveniently fabricated using common construction materials and techniques. Buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) employing BRBs offer desirable seismic resistant lateral strength, stiffness and ductility. This paper introduces the basic concept, key design principles, the various compositions and connection details of BRBs. Effects of the ratio between the BRB yield region length and the brace work point-to-work point length on the BRB axial effective stiffness, the frame yield story drift, and the BRB core strain level are illustrated. This paper discusses the design procedures of the BRBF system, the capacity design principle of the columns and beams adjacent to the BRBs. Recommendations on the design of gussets are also given. The effectiveness of an innovative cloud service, Brace on Demand (BOD), for automated design of BRBs and end connections is demonstrated. Qualifying test results of 10 practical BRBs randomly selected from recent 10 application projects are discussed to demonstrate how Taiwan engineers practice the BRB quality control for building construction projects. Acceptance criteria of the BRB qualifying tests are presented. |
| Title | The seismic performance of reinforced concrete columns using the lap-spliced crosstie and lap-spliced inner hoop |
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| Author | Tai-Kuang Lee , Cheng-Cheng Chen |
| Keywords | lap-spliced crosstie, lap-spliced inner hoop, RC columns, seismic performance |
| Abstract | A lap-spliced crosstie consists of two J- shaped steel bars (rebars) that have a straight end and an end featuring a 180° hook. A lap-spliced inner hoop is the lap splice of two U-bars. In this study, a lateral cyclic load test was conducted on four specimens of large-sized reinforced concrete (RC) columns to investigate the seismic resistance capability of RC columns comprising lap-spliced crossties and lap-spliced i nner hoops. The research results are presented as follows: (a) The ductility of the specimens that adopted the lap-spliced crossties and lap-spliced inne r hoops was significantly superior to that of the specimens using conventional crossties and crossties featuring a 180° hook on the two ends. (b) The constructability of the lap-spliced crossties and lap-spliced inner hoops was satisfactory. In particular, using lap-spliced crossties in construction is easy and pr oduces a low possibility of construction errors. Therefore, the construction qua lity of RC column reinforcement and the seismic resistance capability of RC structures can be substantially increased. (c) The lap-spliced crosstie and lap-spliced inner hoop were formed on the basis of the tension lap splice of rebars. The column size used in this study fulfilled the minimum column size requirement fo r lap splice and can therefore be conveniently applied in engineering practices. |
| Title | Research and development on steel-GFRP composite asymmetric cable-stayed bridge for emergency disaster relief |
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| Author | Yu-Chi Sung ,Fang-Yao Yeh ,Hsiao-Hui Hung ,Kuo-Chun Chang ,Shih-Hsun Yin, Yi-Tsung Chiu, Che-Kai Hsu, Zheng-kuan Lee, Chung-Che Chou, Tony C. Liu, Jui-Chang Chuang, Wei-Yiu Pan |
| Keywords | Composite bridge for emergency disaster relief, asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, lightweight, portable, and reusable bridge |
| Abstract | Owing to recent extreme climates, typhoons, floods, and earthquakes have become large natural disaster threats in Taiwan over the years. Such natural disasters have caused damage to some bridges, consequently isolating residential communities located on mountains, and hampering the ability to delivery emergency relief supplies to those communities. In order to provide quick emergency relief, the simple construction of a temporary bridge becomes critical for the transportation of food an d medical supplies into the emergency disaster areas. While composite materials for footbridges and vehicular traffic applications have been widely used overseas, they are not suitable for disaster relief applications. The objective of this paper is to present a novel bridge structure for a portable, reusable, and lightweight bridge. This paper focuses on the analysis, design, and experimental verification of a temporary composite bridge for disaster relief. To provide safe traffic diversion, this paper designs and constructs a cable-stayed bridge with 20 m main span by using fiber reinforced polymer material, the bridge can be constructed in 8 hours and can hold 5-ton trucks. After construction, a series of tests were conducted to verify the fact that the bridge can conform to the design purpose. In addition, these tests were numerically simulated by finite element analysis software ANSYS, and make a comparison between experimental and numerical results to investigate the accuracy of numerical modeling of the bridge. Ultimately, it advocates composite bridges for disaster relief applications. |
| Title | Design Values of Mean Pressure Coefficients for Domed Roofs |
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| Author | Yuan-Lung Lo, Tao Sun, Chia-Hao Lee, Chii-Ming Cheng |
| Keywords | Domed roof, External pressure coefficient, Height-span ratio, Zoning |
| Abstract | Large span roof structures are one of the most welcomed structural types for its spatial feature and multi-functional performance. Most of them are categorized as low-rise buildings; however, its light-weight and long span characteristics make wind pressures dominate the subsequent structural response and make the wind load evaluation a difficult task. The simplified methodology of design wind loads may not be adoptable. In this research, systematic wind tunnel tests and several codes were compared and discussed on the domed roof structures, which is one category of large span roof structures. It was demonstrated that the design values in several codes may cause over conservative or unfavorable unsafe design in certain local area of the roof surface. Based on wind tunnel data, this research proposed a suggestive flowchart to evaluate the mean wind pressure coefficients in terms of span height ratio (f/D) and wall height ratio (h/D). |