In this study an alternate formulation, using optimal membrane triangle elements in finite element (FE) programming has been implemented. The formulation showed that more efficient computation was achieved and the accuracy of the FE program was established using some standard benchmark examples. Numerical studies indicate that the FE idealization, with coarse mesh using this alternative optimal membrane triangle element, produced good results for the analysis of shear wall structures. The results were found to be satisfactory with a wide range of element aspect ratio.

This paper deals with the modeling of the plane frame structure-foundation-soil system. The superstructure along with the foundation beam is idealized as beam bending elements. The soil medium near the foundation beam with stress concentrated is idealized by isoparametric finite elements, and infinite elements are used to represent the far field of the soil media. This paper presents the modeling of shear wall structure-foundation and soil system using the optimal membrane triangular, super and conventional finite elements. Particularly, an alternative formulation is presented for the optimal triangular elements aimed at reducing the programming effort and computational cost. The proposed model is applied to a plane framecombined footing-soil system. It is shown that the total settlement obtained from the nonlinear interactive analysis is about 1.3 to 1.4 times that of the non-interactive analysis. Furthermore, the proposed model was found to be efficient in simulating the shear wallfoundation-soil system, being able to yield results that are similar to those obtained by the conventional finite element method.

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A core system for buildings has been recognized as an effective tool for managing the response of the building when an earthquake happens by decoupling the building structure from potentially damaging earthquake-induced forces. A challenging issue in this context is the application of the configuration of the core system. A review of recent studies shows that the configuration of cores has not been substantial investigated. This study presents seismic design concepts in which different configurations of cores are applied to a building. Nine steel buildings were modeled with rectangular core, octagon core, circle core, lozenge core, cross core, multi core, irregular core 1, and irregular core 2. All structural models are subjected to components of the 1940 El Centro earthquake and are evaluated and compared with the response of a structure without core. All models were also compared with and without opening in cores. The performance of the structural models under seismic excitation was evaluated by conducting linear dynamic time history analysis. Seismic results are investigated in terms of joint displacement and structure internal member forces. Results show that the presence of irregular core 1 significantly reduces the seismic response of the structure in this plane.

Accurate modelling is required to estimate crack propagation in a beam-column joint. In this study, a numerical method is developed to model crack propagation and failure loading in a beam-column joint under static load. To realize this objective, a four-node, thin-layer interface element is produced to model the fracture process zone and crack propagation. Moreover, the fracture criterion for determining the growth of a crack based on the release rate of strain energy is established. To validate the present model, ABAQUS software is used to simulate crack propagation by conventional cohesive elements. The numerical results obtained are extremely close to the experimental results within an accuracy level ranging from 4.3% to 6.7%. Meanwhile, the ABAQUS software data and the experimental data are predicted at a margin of error ranging from 12.4% to 16%.