TY - JOUR A1 - Šakić, Bogdan A1 - Marinković, Marko A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Klinkel, Sven ED - Yang, J. T1 - Influence of slab deflection on the out-of-plane capacity of unreinforced masonry partition walls JF - Engineering Structures N2 - Severe damage of non-structural elements is noticed in previous earthquakes, causing high economic losses and posing a life threat for the people. Masonry partition walls are one of the most commonly used non-structural elements. Therefore, their behaviour under earthquake loading in out-of-plane (OOP) direction is investigated by several researches in the past years. However, none of the existing experimental campaigns or analytical approaches consider the influence of prior slab deflection on OOP response of partition walls. Moreover, none of the existing construction techniques for the connection of partition walls with surrounding reinforced concrete (RC) is investigated for the combined slab deflection and OOP loading. However, the inevitable time-dependent behaviour of RC slabs leads to high values of final slab deflections which can further influence boundary conditions of partition walls. Therefore, a comprehensive study on the influence of slab deflection on the OOP capacity of masonry partitions is conducted. In the first step, experimental tests are carried out. Results of experimental tests are further used for the calibration of the numerical model employed for a parametric study. Based on the results, behaviour under combined loading for different construction techniques is explained. The results show that slab deflection leads either to severe damage or to a high reduction of OOP capacity. Existing practical solutions do not account for these effects. In this contribution, recommendations to overcome the problems of combined slab deflection and OOP loading on masonry partition walls are given. Possible interaction of in-plane (IP) loading, with the combined slab deflection and OOP loading on partition walls, is not investigated in this study. KW - Masonry partition walls KW - Earthquake KW - Out-of-plane capacity KW - Slab deflection Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2022.115342 SN - 0141-0296 VL - 276 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Taddei, Francesca A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Klinkel, S. T1 - Parametric investigation of the soil-structure interaction effects on the dynamic behaviour of a shallow foundation supported wind turbine considering a layered soil JF - Wind energy : an international journal for progress and applications in wind power conversion technology Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/we.1703 SN - 1099-1824 (E-Journal); 1095-4244 (Print) VL - Volume 18 IS - Issue 3 SP - 399 EP - 417 PB - Wiley CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rossi, Leonardo A1 - Winands, Mark H. M. A1 - Butenweg, Christoph ED - Zhang, Jessica T1 - Monte Carlo Tree Search as an intelligent search tool in structural design problems JF - Engineering with Computers : An International Journal for Simulation-Based Engineering N2 - Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a search technique that in the last decade emerged as a major breakthrough for Artificial Intelligence applications regarding board- and video-games. In 2016, AlphaGo, an MCTS-based software agent, outperformed the human world champion of the board game Go. This game was for long considered almost infeasible for machines, due to its immense search space and the need for a long-term strategy. Since this historical success, MCTS is considered as an effective new approach for many other scientific and technical problems. Interestingly, civil structural engineering, as a discipline, offers many tasks whose solution may benefit from intelligent search and in particular from adopting MCTS as a search tool. In this work, we show how MCTS can be adapted to search for suitable solutions of a structural engineering design problem. The problem consists of choosing the load-bearing elements in a reference reinforced concrete structure, so to achieve a set of specific dynamic characteristics. In the paper, we report the results obtained by applying both a plain and a hybrid version of single-agent MCTS. The hybrid approach consists of an integration of both MCTS and classic Genetic Algorithm (GA), the latter also serving as a term of comparison for the results. The study’s outcomes may open new perspectives for the adoption of MCTS as a design tool for civil engineers. KW - Monte Carlo Tree Search KW - Structural design KW - Artificial intelligence KW - Civil engineering KW - Genetic algorithm Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00366-021-01338-2 SN - 1435-5663 SN - 0177-0667 VL - 38 IS - 4 SP - 3219 EP - 3236 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rossi, Leonardo A1 - Stupazzini, Marco A1 - Parisi, Davide A1 - Holtschoppen, Britta A1 - Ruggieri, Gabriella A1 - Butenweg, Christoph T1 - Empirical fragility functions and loss curves for long-span-beam buildings based on the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake official database JF - Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering N2 - The 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake, that mainly struck the homonymous Italian region provoking 28 casualties and damage to thousands of structures and infrastructures, is an exceptional source of information to question, investigate, and challenge the validity of seismic fragility functions and loss curves from an empirical standpoint. Among the most recent seismic events taking place in Europe, that of Emilia-Romagna is quite likely one of the best documented, not only in terms of experienced damages, but also for what concerns occurred losses and necessary reconstruction costs. In fact, in order to manage the compensations in a fair way both to citizens and business owners, soon after the seismic sequence, the regional administrative authority started (1) collecting damage and consequence-related data, (2) evaluating information sources and (3) taking care of the cross-checking of various reports. A specific database—so-called Sistema Informativo Gestione Europa (SFINGE)—was devoted to damaged business activities. As a result, 7 years after the seismic events, scientists can rely on a one-of-a-kind, vast and consistent database, containing information about (among other things): (1) buildings’ location and dimensions, (2) occurred structural damages, (3) experienced direct economic losses and (4) related reconstruction costs. The present work is focused on a specific data subset of SFINGE, whose elements are Long-Span-Beam buildings (mostly precast) deployed for business activities in industry, trade or agriculture. With the available set of data, empirical fragility functions, cost and loss ratio curves are elaborated, that may be included within existing Performance Based Earthquake Engineering assessment toolkits. KW - Empirical fragility functions KW - Empirical consequence curves KW - Precast buildings KW - Emilia-Romagna earthquake KW - PBEE Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10518-019-00759-1 SN - 1573-1456 VL - 18 SP - 1693 EP - 1721 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rossi, Leonardo A1 - Parisi, Davide A1 - Casari, Chiara A1 - Montanari, Luca A1 - Ruggieri, Gabriella A1 - Holtschoppen, Britta A1 - Butenweg, Christoph T1 - Empirical Data about Direct Economic Consequences of Emilia-Romagna 2012 Earthquake on Long-Span-Beam Buildings JF - Earthquake Spectra Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1193/100118EQS224DP SN - 1944-8201 VL - 35 IS - 4 SP - 1979 EP - 2001 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rossi, Leonardo A1 - Holtschoppen, Britta A1 - Butenweg, Christoph T1 - Official data on the economic consequences of the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake: a first analysis of database SFINGE JF - Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10518-019-00655-8 VL - 17 IS - 9 SP - 4855 EP - 4884 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rosin, Julia A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Cacciatore, Pamela A1 - Boesen, Niklas T1 - Investigation of the seismic performance of modern masonry buildings during the Emilia Romagna earthquake series T1 - Untersuchungen des seismischen Verhaltens von modernen Mauerwerksbauten während der Erdbebenserie in der Emilia Romagna JF - Mauerwerk N2 - The article presents the investigation of the seismic behaviour of a modern URM building located in the municipality of Finale Emilia in province of Modena, Northern Italy. The building is situated in the centre of the series of the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes and has not suffered any damage during the earthquake series in 2012. The observed earthquake resistance of the building is compared with predicted resistances based on linear and nonlinear design approaches according to Eurocode. Furthermore, probabilistic analyses based on nonlinear calculation models taking into account scattering of the most relevant input parameters are carried out to identify their influence to the results and to derive fragility curves. Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dama.201800013 SN - 1437-1022 VL - 22 IS - 4 SP - 238 EP - 250 PB - Ernst & Sohn CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rochefort, E. de A1 - Verver, M. A1 - Grunendahl, A. A1 - Mooi, H. A1 - Butenweg, Christoph T1 - Detailed modelling of the lumbar spine for investigations of low back pain JF - SAE transactions : papers presented at Society and Section meetings / Society of Automotive Engineers Y1 - 2005 SN - 0096-736X VL - Volume 114 IS - Part 7 SP - 788 EP - 796 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mykoniou, Konstantin A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Holtschoppen, Britta A1 - Klinkel, Sven T1 - Seismic response analysis of adjacent liquid-storage tanks JF - Earthquake engineering and structural dynamics N2 - A refined substructure technique in the frequency domain is developed, which permits consideration of the interaction effects among adjacent containers through the supporting deformable soil medium. The tank-liquid systems are represented by means of mechanical models, whereas discrete springs and dashpots stand for the soil beneath the foundations. The proposed model is employed to assess the responses of adjacent circular, cylindrical tanks for harmonic and seismic excitations over wide range of tank proportions and soil conditions. The influence of the number, spatial arrangement of the containers and their distance on the overall system's behavior is addressed. The results indicate that the cross-interaction effects can substantially alter the impulsive components of response of each individual element in a tank farm. The degree of this impact is primarily controlled by the tank proportions and the proximity of the predominant natural frequencies of the shell-liquid-soil systems and the input seismic motion. The group effects should be not a priori disregarded, unless the tanks are founded on shallow soil deposit overlying very stiff material or bedrock. KW - liquid-structure interaction KW - seismic response KW - impulsive effects KW - liquid-storage tank KW - structure-soil-structure interaction Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eqe.2726 SN - 1096-9845 (E-Journal); 0098-8847 (Print) VL - 45 IS - 11 SP - 1779 EP - 1796 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morandi, Paolo A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Breis, Khaled A1 - Beyer, Katrin A1 - Magenes, Guido ED - Ansal, Atilla T1 - Latest findings on the behaviour factor q for the seismic design of URM buildings JF - Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering N2 - Recent earthquakes as the 2012 Emilia earthquake sequence showed that recently built unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings behaved much better than expected and sustained, despite the maximum PGA values ranged between 0.20–0.30 g, either minor damage or structural damage that is deemed repairable. Especially low-rise residential and commercial masonry buildings with a code-conforming seismic design and detailing behaved in general very well without substantial damages. The low damage grades of modern masonry buildings that was observed during this earthquake series highlighted again that codified design procedures based on linear analysis can be rather conservative. Although advances in simulation tools make nonlinear calculation methods more readily accessible to designers, linear analyses will still be the standard design method for years to come. The present paper aims to improve the linear seismic design method by providing a proper definition of the q-factor of URM buildings. These q-factors are derived for low-rise URM buildings with rigid diaphragms which represent recent construction practise in low to moderate seismic areas of Italy and Germany. The behaviour factor components for deformation and energy dissipation capacity and for overstrength due to the redistribution of forces are derived by means of pushover analyses. Furthermore, considerations on the behaviour factor component due to other sources of overstrength in masonry buildings are presented. As a result of the investigations, rationally based values of the behaviour factor q to be used in linear analyses in the range of 2.0–3.0 are proposed. KW - Unreinforced masonry buildings KW - Modern constructions KW - Seismic design KW - Linear elastic analysis KW - Behaviour factor q Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10518-022-01419-7 SN - 1573-1456 SN - 1570-761X VL - 20 IS - 11 SP - 5797 EP - 5848 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER -