Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Webinars – Dr. Sarven Akçelyan

Dr. Sarven Aku00e7elyan from Kadir Has University will be the guest of KHAS Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciencesu00a0webinar series with his speech u201cSeismic Retrofit of Tall Buildings with Supplemental Damping Devicesu201d on Friday, April 8 at 14.00.

The event will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone interested.

Abstract: Urban centers and rapidly growing cities are characterized by tall buildings that contribute to the economic growth and sustainable development of societies. Although new buildings are designed according to modern code provisions, some existing tall buildings in seismic regions may have potential deficiencies. It is understood that effective retrofit solutions should be proposed to enhance the seismic performance of these buildings. In this presentation, the emphasis is placed on the implementation of passive energy dissipation devices, particularly nonlinear viscous dampers, oil dampers with relief valves and buckling-restrained braces. These devices are protective structural systems that can mitigate structural vibrations without the need for an external power supply. In the context of performance-based design, there is an increased need to improve the reliability of state-of-art and simplified evaluation methods for tall buildings equipped with supplemental damping devices. The first part of the presentation focuses on the numerical simulation of buildings equipped with supplemental damping devices. The applicability of the numerical models and evaluation methods is demonstrated through several validation examples with data that involve component experimentation as well as the utilization of full-scale shake table tests of a 5-story steel building equipped with supplemental damping devices. The second part of the presentation discusses the development of a practical multi-degree-of-freedom performance curves method for the retrofit of tall buildings with supplemental damping devices. To this end, a comprehensive study is presented on the seismic retrofit of a benchmark existing steel tall building representing typical 1970s construction in North America.u00a0

About the Speaker: Sarven Akcelyan was born in 1986 in Istanbul. He completed his secondary education at St. Georgu2019s Austrian High School. He obtained his BSc. degree in Civil Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, where he graduated in 2009 from the Faculty of Civil Engineering as a valedictorian. He was then admitted to an EU-funded joint MSc. degree program in Earthquake Engineering. To this end, he attended the University of Pavia (Italy) and the University of Patras (Greece). In 2012 he moved to Montreal, Canada to pursue his doctoral studies at McGill University. During his years at McGill, Dr. Akcelyan worked on several research projects aiming to develop state-of-the-art numerical modeling for simulation of buildings based on large-scale experimentation and improved design methodologies for seismic retrofit of buildings with supplemental damping devices, particularly for steel structures and tall buildings. After receiving his doctoral degree in 2017 he worked as a lecturer at McGill University and taught several undergraduate and graduate-level structural engineering courses. During the same period, Dr. Akcelyan conducted research on the development of nonlinear numerical modeling for the simulation of cold-formed steel structures. He is the recipient of several honors and awards, including McGill Engineering Doctoral Award, John Adjeleian Named Fellowship, and Graduate Excellence Fellowship. More recently, Dr. Akcelyan has been working on the development of new structural analysis software. He frequently serves as a reviewer for a number of journals in the field of structural and earthquake engineering. In 2018, he was awarded the certificate of outstanding contribution in reviewing by the Journal of Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. Dr. Akcelyan joined the Civil Engineering Department of Kadir Has University as Assistant Professor in November 2021.