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To provide appropriate uses of nonlinear ground response analysis for engineering practice, a three-dimensional soil column with a distributed mass system and a time domain numerical analysis were implemented on the Open Sees simulation platform. The standard mesh of a three-dimensional soil column was suggested to be satisfied with the specified maximum frequency. The layered soil column was divided into multiple sub-soils with a different viscous damping matrix according to the shear velocities as the soil properties were significantly different. It was necessary to use a combination of other one-dimensional or three-dimensional nonlinear seismic ground analysis programs to confirm the applicability of nonlinear seismic ground motion response analysis procedures in soft soil or for strong earthquakes. The accuracy of the three-dimensional soil column finite element method was verified by dynamic centrifuge model testing under different peak accelerations of the earthquake. As a result, nonlinear seismic ground motion response analysis procedures were improved in this study. The accuracy and efficiency of the three-dimensional seismic ground response analysis can be adapted to the requirements of engineering practice.

The seismic response of an isolated vertical, cylindrical, extra-large liquefied natural gas （LNG） tank by a multiple friction pendulum system （MFPS） is analyzed. Most of the extra-large LNG tanks have a fundamental frequency which involves a range of resonance of most earthquake ground motions. It is an effective way to decrease the response of an isolation system used for extra-large LNG storage tanks under a strong earthquake. However, it is difficult to implement in practice with common isolation bearings due to issues such as low temperature, soft site and other severe environment factors. The extra-large LNG tank isolated by a MFPS is presented in this study to address these problems. A MFPS is appropriate for large displacements induced by earthquakes with long predominant periods. A simplified finite element model by Malhotra and Dunkerley is used to determine the usefulness of the isolation system. Data reported and statistically sorted include pile shear, wave height, impulsive acceleration, convective acceleration and outer tank acceleration. The results show that the isolation system has excellent adaptability for different liquid levels and is very effective in controlling the seismic response of extra-large LNG tanks.

A flexible supporting structure that reduces seismic response of an arch is proposed. Topology and cross-sectional areas of the supporting structure modeled as a truss structure are optimized through two steps of static and dynamic optimization problems. In the first step, a flexible supporting structure that has diagonal displacement at the top under horizontal load is obtained by solving static optimization problems. Then, in the second step, the cross-sectional area of the flexible member is optimized to minimize the seismic response acceleration of the arch evaluated by the complete quadratic combination (CQC) method. Time-history seismic response analysis is carried out to show that the response in the normal direction of the roof successfully decreases due to flexibility of the supporting structure; in addition, installing passive energy dissipation devices into the flexible supporting structure is very effective in reducing the tangential response of the arch.

An optimization method for the consistent evaluation of two Rayleigh damping coefficients is proposed. By minimizing an objective function such as an error term of the peak displacement of a structure, the two coefficients can be determined with response spectral analysis. The optimization method degenerates into the conventional method used in current practices when only two modes of vibration are included in the objective function. Therefore, the proposed method with all significant modes included for simplicity in practical applications results in suboptimal damping coefficients. The effects of both spatial distribution and frequency content of excitations as well as structural dynamic characteristics on the evaluation of Rayleigh damping coefficients were investigated with a five-story building structure. Two application examples with a 62-story high-rise building and a 840 m long cable-stayed bridge under ten earthquake excitations demonstrated the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method to account for all of the above effects.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of earthquakes on road vehicle-bridge coupling vibration systems. A two-axle highway freight vehicle is treated as a 13 degree-of-freedom system composed of several rigid bodies, which are connected by a series of springs and dampers. The framework of the earthquake-vehicle-bridge dynamic analysis system is then established using an earthquake as the extemal excitation. The equivalent lateral contact force serves as the judgment criteria for sideslip accidents according to reliability theory. The entire process of the vehicle crossing the bridge is considered for a very high pier continuous rigid frame bridge. The response characteristics of the vehicle and the bridge are discussed in terms of various parameters such as earthquake ground motion, PGA value of the earthquake, incident angle, pier height, vehicle speed and mass. It is found that seismic excitation is the most influential factor in the responses of the vehicle-bridge system and that the safety of vehicles crossing the bridge is seriously impacted by the dual excitations of earthquake and bridge vibration.

Performance analysis of the Pangu Plaza under earthquake and wind loads is described in this paper. The plaza is a 39-story steel high-rise building, 191 m high, located in Beijing close to the 2008 Olympic main stadium. It has both fluid viscous dampers （FVDs） and buckling restrained braces or unbonded brace （BRB or UBB） installed. A repeated iteration procedure in its design and analysis was adopted for optimization. Results from the seismic response analysis in the horizontal and vertical directions show that the FVDs are highly effective in reducing the response of both the main structure and the secondary system. A comparative analysis of structural seismic performance and economic impact was conducted using traditional methods, i.e., increased size of steel columns and beams and/or use of an increased number of seismic braces versus using FVD. Both the structural response and economic analysis show that using FVD to absorb seismic energy not only satisfies the Chinese seismic design code for a ＂rare＂ earthquake, but is also the most economical way to improve seismic performance both for one-time direct investment and long term maintenance.