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108. Seismic Retrofit of the Tower of Hope – Preservation of a Masterwork of Mid-Century Modernism

The two frame office towers, constructed in the 1970s per the 1967 edition of the UBC, use perimeter reinforced concrete moment frames to resist seismic loading. The buildings are rectangular in plan and have certain characteristics that adversely affect their seismic performance, in particular the presence of a soft-story response at the first floor (approximately 50% taller than typical floors), and limited ductility typical of buildings of that era. Risk analysis showed that for the towers the PML exceeded 20%. Nonlinear response history analysis (NLRHA) of the towers was conducted and showed that in the existing configuration, the story drift ratios (SDRs) at the first floor exceeded 2%, shear hinging of the first floor beams was expected and that the SDRs would need to be reduced to approximately 1.4% for the first floor to limit the extent of nonlinear response. Seismic retrofit included addition of 300-kip viscous dampers in both directions to the first floor of the building.
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30. Experimental and Analytical Study of a System Consisting of Sliding Bearings and Fluid Restoring Force/Damping Devices

This report describes an experimental study of the behavior of a bridge seismic sliding isolation system consisting of flat sliding bearings and fluid restoring force/damping devices. Earthquake simulator tests were performed on a model bridge structure both with isolators and without. The experimental results demonstrate a marked increase of the capacity of the isolated bridge to withstand earthquake forces. Analytical techniques are used to predict the dynamic response of the system and the obtained results are in very good agreement with the experimental results.

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31. Study of Seismic Isolation Systems for Computer Floors

This report describes the development and testing of a computer floor seismic isolation systems which uses existing devices developed for the seismic isolation of buildings and shock isolation of military equipment. A computer floor system with raised floor and a generic slender equipment cabinet was constructed. It was isolated by spherically shaped sliding bearings and was highly damped either by utilizing high friction in the bearings or by installing fluid viscous dampers. The spherically shaped bearings provided the simplest means of achieving long period in the isolation system under low gravity load. The isolation system prevented rocking of the cabinet on top of the isolated floor and substantially reduced its acceleration response in comparison to that of a conventional computer floor. An analytical study was also conducted in order to extend the results to a range of parameters which could not be tested.

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32. Application of Fluid Viscous Dampers to Earthquake Design

This article summarizes the extensive viscous dampers investigation performed by NCEER at State University of New York, Buffalo Campus. This included computer modeling of both the dampers and complete isolated systems, along with shake table testing and correlation of results. The article also describes a very large damper projects; dampers + base isolation for a set of five hospital buildings near San Bernardino, CA.

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34. Fear of Trembling

This article describes the effects of both Kobe earthquake and the Northridge earthquake in detail, including technical and economic details. It also discusses building codes and practices and what is being done around the world to decrease the risk of severe seismic damage.

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