---

The nonlinear static pushover analysis technique is mostly used in the performance-based design of structures and it is favored over nonlinear response history analysis. However, the pushover analysis with FEMA load distributions losses its accuracy in estimating seismic responses of long period structures when higher mode effects are important. Some procedures have been offered to consider this effect. FEMA and Modal pushover analysis (MPA) are addressed in the current study and compared with inelastic response history analysis. These procedures are applied to medium high-rise (10 and 15 storey) and high-rise (20 and 30 storey) frames efficiency and limitations of them are elaborated. MPA procedure present significant advantage over FEMA load distributions in predicting storey drifts, but the both are thoroughly unsuccessful to predict hinge plastic rotations with acceptable accuracy. It is demonstrated that the seismic demands determined with MPA procedure will be unsatisfactory in nonlinear systems subjected to individual ground motions which inelastic SDF systems related to significant modes of the buildings respond beyond the elastic limit. Therefore, it’s inevitable to avoid evaluating seismic demands of the buildings based on individual ground motion with MPA procedure.

---

Plan irregularity causes local damages being concentrated in the irregular buildings. Progressive collapse is also the collapse of a large portion or whole building due to the local damages in the structure. The effect of irregularity on the progressive collapse potential of the buildings is investigated in this study. This is carried out by progressive collapse evaluation of the asymmetric mid rise and tall buildings in comparison with the symmetric ones via the nonlinear time history analyses in the 6, 9 and 12 story reinforced concrete buildings. The effect of increasing the mass eccentricity levels is investigated on the progressive collapse mechanism of the buildings with respect to the story drift behavior and the number of beam and column collapsed hinges criteria. According to the results, increasing the mass eccentricity levels causes earlier instability with lower number of the collapsed hinges which is necessary to fail the asymmetric buildings and at the same time mitigates the potential of progressive collapse. Moreover, the decreasing trend of the story drifts of the flexible edges is lower than those of the stiff edges and the mass centers and the amount of decrement in the story drifts of the stiff edges is approximately similar to those of the mass centers.

---

This paper investigates the effect of different deteriorating hysteretic model parameters on the response of asymmetric buildings. The example buildings are 5-story symmetric and asymmetric buildings. The maximum interstory drift ratio over the height of building is selected as the structural response in this study. A proper hysteretic model is used to simulate the deterioration properties of structural elements. The median response of building with different mass eccentricities is evaluated by 3D modeling. The results are provided for both torsionally stiff and torsionally flexible buildings. The results show that the effect of deterioration parameters are different for flexible side and stiff side elements. Those effects are mainly significant for higher intensity levels. That intensity threshold level is independent of all hysteretic parameters except for the plastic rotation capacity.

---

Stilling basins and hydraulic jumps are designers’ favorable choice for energy dissipation downstream of spillways and outlets. A properly designed stilling basin can ensure considerable energy dissipation in the short distance of a basin. In this study, experiments have been conducted to evaluate effects of a perforated sill and its position on the length of a favorable B-type hydraulic jump in a stilling basin. Perforated sills with different heights and ratio of openings were placed in different positions of the stilling basin. Tests were carried out for three tail water depths to assess the sensitivity of the jump to tail water. The hydraulic characteristics of the jump were measured and compared with continuous sill-controlled and free hydraulic jumps. Results of the experiments confirmed significant effect of the perforated sill on dissipation of energy and development of the jump in a shorter distance. Results are also presented in the form of mathematical models for estimation of the sill height, sill position, and basin length with the inflow measurable parameters of depth and velocity.

---

Among important issues in progressive collapse behavior of a building is tracking down the type and location of the damaged elements. This paper deals with identifying the distribution of collapse from the first element to the entire building due to earthquake loads. Here, 3D collapse propagations in symmetric and asymmetric reinforced concrete buildings are compared using nonlinear time history analyses. The variables of such analyses are earthquake load intensity and the level of in plan one directional mass eccentricity. Results show that collapse distribution is dependent on the degree of asymmetry in building. Some patterns to predict progressive collapse scenarios in similar symmetric and asymmetric buildings are also determined. One main pattern shows that the propagation of collapse is horizontal through the stories, but not vertical through the height of the buildings. Spread of the collapse is independent of the earthquake records also according to the results, damage concentration is larger in places with larger mass concentration.

---

Traffic simulation is a powerful tool for analyzing and solving several transportation issues and traffic problems. However, all traffic micro-simulation models require a suitable car-following model to show the real situation in the best way possible. Several car-following models have been proposed. An obvious disadvantage of the former models is the great number of parameters which are difficult to calibrate. Moreover, any change in these parameters creates considerable disturbances. In this paper, a car-following model was proposed using the Epsilon -Support Vector Regression method whose output is the acceleration of the following car. Radial Basis Function was used as the kernel of the ε-SVR method, and the model parameters were tuned using the Grid Search method. The best values for the parameters were obtained. Furthermore, linear scaling in the interval [-1, 1] was used for both the training and testing input data, and the method was proven to more accurate than the case where no scaling was used. Accordingly, a car-following model with the mean squared error equal to 0.005 and the squared correlation coefficient equal to 0.98 was proposed using the function estimation method through the ε-SVR method. Finally, the ε-SVR output was compared with the results of the well-known car-following models, including Helly linear model, the GHR model, and the Gipps model. It was shown that, when using the scaling and parameters tuning techniques, the proposed method was more accurate compared to all three of those models. Moreover, a function fitting Artificial Neural Network was ran for this purpose and the outputs showed that the result of the ε-SVR method is better than that of the function fitting method by the proposed ANN. Implementing a microscopic validation of the proposed model showed that it can be used in the drivers’ assistance devices and other purposes of Intelligent Transportation Systems.