response modification factor (r factor) is one of the seismic design parameters to be considered in evaluating the performance of buildings during strong motions. this paper has tried to evaluate the response modification factor of concrete coupled shear wall structures with various length/depth ratios of spandrel beams. the effect of diagonal reinforcement of spandrel beam was also evaluated o...

Response modification factor (R factor) is one of the seismic design parameters to be considered in evaluating the performance of buildings during strong motions. This paper has tried to evaluate the response modification factor of concrete coupled shear wall structures with various length/depth ratios of spandrel beams. The effect of diagonal reinforcement of spandrel beam was also evaluated o...

An analytical procedure based on the SLaMA (Simplified Lateral Mechanism Analysis) method is proposed for seismic vulnerability assessment of UnReinforced Masonry (URM) structures. The considers an equivalent frame discretization structure (pier, spandrel, and joint elements) includes: (i) evaluation moment?rotation capacity curves at each pier-spandrel subassembly; (ii) hierarchy strength in (...

In 1979, Lewontin and I borrowed the architectural term "spandrel" (using the pendentives of San Marco in Venice as an example) to designate the class of forms and spaces that arise as necessary byproducts of another decision in design, and not as adaptations for direct utility in themselves. This proposal has generated a large literature featuring two critiques: (i) the terminological claim th...

Unreinforced masonry (URM) walls comprise vertical piers and horizontal spandrels, which together form the lateral load resisting system. Whereas past research yielded significant advances in the understanding of the force–deformation characteristics of masonry piers, knowledge of the behaviour of masonry spandrels is lacking. This paper makes a contribution to our understanding of the seismic ...

All organisms control the size of their cells. We focus here on the question of size regulation in bacteria, and suggest that the quantitative laws governing cell size and its dependence on growth rate may arise as byproducts of a regulatory mechanism which evolved to support multiple DNA replication forks. In particular, we show that the increase of bacterial cell size during Lenski's long-ter...

When the flange of a reinforced concrete spandrel beam is in tension, current design codes and specifications enable portion bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective width. The flexural behavior RC L-shaped when laterally displaced investigated experimentally numerically this work. Numerical analysis utilizing finite element method performed on discretized flange...