Author Archives: matteatherton
CEE 6434 Advanced Steel Design
Structural steel elements possess significant ductility and steel structures often have redundancy in the load path. As a result, there is an inherent ability to redistribute loads as localized inelasticity occurs. The use of linear elastic structural models and design … Continue reading
Effect of Fasteners and Defects in the Protected Zone on the Performance of Moment Frames
This research is investigating the effect of fasteners and defects applied in the protected zone on the ductility, low cycle fatigue performance, and inelastic rotation capacity of steel beam-to-column moment frame connections. Special moment resisting frames (SMRF) depend on large … Continue reading
Controlled Rocking of Steel Braced Frames with Replaceable Energy Dissipating Fuses
Current U.S. building codes and earthquake engineering practice utilize inelasticity in the seismic force resisting system to dissipate seismic energy and protect against collapse. Inelasticity in conventional structures can lead to structural damage distributed throughout the building and permanent drifts … Continue reading
Development of a Self-Centering Buckling Restrained Brace
The project led by Larry Fahnestock at the University of Illinois, involves the investigation of the the seismic behavior and performance of self-centering buckling-restrained braces (SC-BRBs). A SC-BRB consists of a typical BRB component, which provides energy dissipation, and pre-tensioned … Continue reading
Understanding Structural Response During Earthquakes Using Wavelet Transforms
As part of the development of performance based earthquake engineering, it has been determined that an important parameter in conducting a set of response history analyses is record-to-record variability. Record-to-Record Variability (RTR) is defined in FEMA P695 (FEMA 2010) as the variation in response of a structure under multiple input ground motions that are scaled to a consistent ground motion intensity. The ATC 63 methodology summarized in FEMA P695 accounts for RTR variability by the number of ground motions, the types of ground motions, the scaling procedure, and a fixed value for the standard deviation of the lognormal collapse probability distribution used therein. However, the source of RTR variability is not analyzed. Continue reading
Characterizing Hysteretic Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Members and Connections
Thin-walled cold-formed steel building systems are becoming an increasingly competitive multi-story construction solution when compared to more traditional hot-rolled steel and timber framing. However, our understanding of the behavior of cold-formed structures subjected to earthquake loading is lacking. Although shear … Continue reading
