Civil and Environmental Engineering
First Advisor
Dr. Joshua Steelman
Second Advisor
Dr. Ronald K. Faller
Third Advisor
Dr. Christine E. Wittich
Date of this Version
Summer 7-28-2017
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Improving structural resilience (i.e., reducing service interruptions and improving rapidity of function restoration) following extreme events is one of the primary contemporary challenges in structural engineering. While massive casualties have successfully been avoided through the adoption of modern building codes, the sole codified performance objective has been limited to the life safety/collapse prevention range of response. Christchurch, NZ, highlighted the insufficiency of this approach, with large sections of the city nonfunctional after a major earthquake, and with subsequent collapses induced by significant aftershocks. Engineering advances to improve building and community resilience are necessary to mitigate hazards from becoming disasters. This study explores the influence and potential benefits of introducing a hyperelastic 3D printed fusing component on global performance outcomes, focusing primarily on direct economic loss estimates. This work identifies potentially beneficial combinations of hyperelastic component phenomenological parameters (i.e., stiffness, ductility, resisting force), presenting the results as a performance comparison between the hyperelastic and conventional hysteretic systems. Current 3D printing technologies allow the easy creation of complex geometries, hence it is expected that 3D printed steel fuses can provide a strategically defined multi-linear hyperelastic constitutive response through geometric configuration and small-scale elastic buckling. The hyperelastic component behavior permits shared participation of mechanical and inertial effects at the global structure level, while also achieving self-centering after extreme loading has concluded. Additionally, the lack of residual drift combined with the lack of significant structural damage will permit continued occupation with minimal functional disruption.
Advisor: Joshua Steelman
Comments
A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science, Major: Civil Engineering, Under the Supervision of Professor Joshua Steelman. Lincoln, Nebraska: August, 2017
Copyright © 2017 Francys López-Mosquera