SUPER-DETAILED FEM SIMULATIONS FOR FULL SCALE STEEL STRUCTURE CAUSED FATAL RUPTURE AT ITS JOINT PARTS BETWEEN MEMBERS

There have been some researches on analysis using finely-meshed FE model to understand in detail the behaviors of buildings during severe earthquakes. The accuracy of such analysis is often validated by comparing the results to the corresponding full-scale shaking table test. While they are highly successful in the accuracy, no researches take account of the effect of fracture of members. In this paper, numerical analysis isconducted for asteel structure subjected to multiple series of excitations in a full-scale shaking table test considering the fracture. The structure is modeled with planar and solid finite elements and the fracture is treated by mandatory deletion of elements at time when fracture was observed in the experiment. It is shown that, by considering fracture of steel members with deletion of elements the history of input excitations and caused damages, the behaviors can be simulated by analysis with much higher accuracy.