Large-Scale Collapse Analyses of Buildings and Motion Analyses of Non-Structural Components within Them
Abstract
In this talk, a finite element approach to analyze large-scale collapse
behaviors of buildings and motion behaviors of non-structural components
within them is presented. The numerical code applied was developed with
a use of an ASI (Adaptively Shifted Integration)-Gauss technique. It dramatically
reduces computational cost when solving large-scale problems.
The code was applied to a fire-induced collapse analysis of a high-rise
tower, which was carried out for an investigation seeking for the true
cause of the total collapse of New York World Trade Center (WTC) towers,
which collapsed in 2001. A seismic pounding analysis of the Nuevo Leon
buildings, in which two out of the three collapsed completely in the 1985
Mexican earthquake, showed that the difference of natural periods between
the north and the center buildings may have triggered the collision, followed
by the collapse. The code was also applied to investigate the collapse
behaviors of ceiling, which is one of the main, indoor non-structural components.
It is very important, nowadays, to know the collapse mechanism of the ceilings
since it causes not only the possibility of human injuries, but may disturb
the use of the facilities after earthquakes. The other numerical cases
include motion analyses of furniture under seismic excitation. A sophisticated
penalty method was applied, in this case, to realize the slip and contact
motions of furniture with and without casters. Many movies regarding the
results will be provided in the talk.