Professor Xiaodong JI's invited seminar

Abstract

Over the past two decades, large numbers of high-rise buildings have been constructed in modern cities of China. High seismicity often leads to serious challenge to design and construction of high-rise buildings. Innovative structural components and systems, which adopt the composite and hybrid concept, have been recently developed for enhanced seismic performance and resiliency of high-rise buildings. This presentation will provide a brief overview of novel types of composite columns and composite shear walls, which have seen increasing use in building constructions in China. Moreover, this presentation will particularly introduce a new type of hybrid coupled wall system consisting of replaceable steel coupling beams (RSCBs) and RC wall piers. While traditional RC coupling beams, if detailed appropriately show adequate seismic performance, once damaged, these components are expensive and time-consuming to repair. As an alternative to RC coupling beams, the replaceable steel coupling beam is proposed, which comprises of a central “fuse” shear link connected to steel beam segments at its two ends. By appropriately proportioning the elements, inelastic deformation is concentrated in the shear link during a severe earthquake, and the link can be replaced readily after being damaged as specialized link-to-beam connections are adopted. This presentation will introduce the design method and recommendations for the proposed RSCBs, which are backed up by a series of large-scale tests. In addition, seismic performance of the hybrid coupled wall system with RSCBs is assessed using a recently developed method recommended in FEMA P-58. The performance of the hybrid coupled wall system is benchmarked against the traditional reinforced concrete coupled wall, and the results imply the improved resiliency of the proposed hybrid coupled wall system.

About the speaker

Dr. Xiaodong JI is an associate professor at Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University. He received his B.E. and Ph.D. of Civil Engineering with distinction from Tsinghua University in 2002 and 2007. Prior to his appointment at Tsinghua University in November 2009, he was a JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher at Kyoto University in Japan. Currently, he serves as Assistant Dean of School of Civil Engineering and Vice Director of the Institute of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Engineering, Tsinghua University. Dr. Ji’s research focuses on development of high-performance structural components and innovative systems for enhanced seismic performance and resiliency of building structures. He is also engaged in developing advanced dynamic testing methods and structural monitoring technologies, with the scope of achieving realistic simulation and observation for seismic behavior of structural systems. He has extensive experience with large-scale tests of structural components and full-scale shaking table tests of building structures. He has published over 100 referred journal papers and conference papers. Dr. Ji’s research outcomes have been applied in a number of projects of super-tall buildings and large-scale infrastructures in China. He has served as the committee members for drafting several design codes, specifications and guidelines. He has won the National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize) and the Best Teaching Award of Tsinghua University.