• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2014

In this paper, a coupling scheme for applying finite element analysis(FEA) programs, such as, LS-DYNA and MIDAS/Civil, to a nonlinear soil structure interaction analysis by the boundary reaction method(BRM) is presented. With the FEA programs, the structure and soil media are discretized by linear or nonlinear finite elements. To absorb the outgoing elastic waves to unbounded soil region as much as possible, the PML elements and viscous-spring elements are used at the outer FE boundary, in the LS-DYNA model and in MIDAS/Civil model, respectively. It is also assumed that all the nonlinear elements in the problem are limited to structural region. In this study, the boundary reaction forces for the use in the BRM are calculated using the KIESSI-3D program by solving soil-foundation interaction problem subjected to incident seismic waves. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a linear SSI seismic analysis problem by comparing the BRM solution with the conventional SSI solution. Numerical comparison indicates that the BRM can effectively be applied to a nonlinear soil-structure analysis if motions at the foundation obtained by the BRM for a linear SSI problem excluding the nonlinear structure is conservative.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.499-512
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• 2016

The boundary reaction method(BRM) is a substructure time domain method, it removes global iterations between frequency and time domain analyses commonly required in the hybrid approaches, so that it operates as a two-step uncoupled method. The BRM offers a two-step method as follows: (1) the calculation of boundary reaction forces in the frequency domain on an interface of linear and nonlinear regions, (2) solving the wave radiation problem subjected to the boundary reaction forces in the time domain. In the time domain analysis, the near-field soil is modeled to simulate the wave radiation problem. This paper evaluates the performance of the BRM according to modeling extent of near-field soil for the nonlinear SSI analysis of base-isolated NPP structure. For this purpose, parametric studies are performed using equivalent linear SSI problems. The accuracy of the BRM solution is evaluated by comparing the BRM solution with that of conventional SSI seismic technique. The numerical results show that the soil condition affects the modeling range of near-field soil for the BRM analysis as well as the size of the basemat. Finally, the BRM is applied for the nonlinear SSI analysis of a base-isolated NPP structure to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the method.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.377-388
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• 2016

This study is aimed to evaluate the embedment effect of foundation as compared to the surface foundation on the response of a base-isolated nuclear power plant structure. For this purpose, the boundary reaction method (BRM), which is a two-step frequency domain and time domain technique, is used for the nonlinear SSI analysis considering nonlinear behavior of base isolators. The numerical model of the BRM is verified by comparing the numerical results obtained by the BRM and the conventional frequency-domain SSI analysis for an equivalent linear SSI system. Finally, the displacement response of the base isolation and the horizontal response of the structure obtained by the nonlinear SSI analysis using the moat foundation model are compared with those using the surface foundation model. The comparison showed that the displacement response of the base isolation can be reduced by considering the embedment effect of foundation.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2015

This paper presents a detailed procedure for a nonlinear soil-structure interaction of a seismically isolated NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) structure using the boundary reaction method (BRM). The BRM offers a two-step method as follows: (1) the calculation of boundary reaction forces in the frequency domain on an interface of linear and nonlinear regions, (2) solving the wave radiation problem subjected to the boundary reaction forces in the time domain. For the purpose of calculating the boundary reaction forces at the base of the isolator, the KIESSI-3D program is employed in this study to solve soil-foundation interaction problem subjected to vertically incident seismic waves. Wave radiation analysis is also employed, in which the nonlinear structure and the linear soil region are modeled by finite elements and energy absorbing elements on the outer model boundary using a general purpose nonlinear FE program. In this study, the MIDAS/Civil program is employed for modeling the wave radiation problem. In order to absorb the outgoing elastic waves to the unbounded soil region, spring and viscous-damper elements are used at the outer FE boundary. The BRM technique utilizing KIESSI-3D and MIDAS/Civil programs is verified using a linear soil-structure analysis problem. Finally the method is applied to nonlinear seismic analysis of a base-isolated NPP structure. The results show that BRM can effectively be applied to nonlinear soil-structure interaction problems.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2023

Considering the non-linear behavior of structure and soil when evaluating a nuclear power plant's seismic safety under a beyond-design basis earthquake is essential. In order to obtain the nonlinear response of a nuclear power plant structure, a time-domain SSI analysis method that considers the nonlinearity of soil and structure and the nonlinear Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) effect is necessary. The Boundary Reaction Method (BRM) is a time-domain SSI analysis method. The BRM can be applied effectively with a Perfectly Matched Layer (PML), which is an effective energy absorbing boundary condition. The BRM has a characteristic that the magnitude of the response in far-field soil increases as the boundary interface of the effective seismic load moves outward. In addition, the PML has poor absorption performance of low-frequency waves. For this reason, the accuracy of the low-frequency response may be degraded when analyzing the combination of the BRM and the PML. In this study, the accuracy of the analysis response was improved by adjusting the PML input parameters to improve this problem. The accuracy of the response was evaluated by using the analysis response using KIESSI-3D, a frequency domain SSI analysis program, as a reference solution. As a result of the analysis applying the optimal PML parameter, the average error rate of the acceleration response spectrum for 9 degrees of freedom of the structure was 3.40%, which was highly similar to the reference result. In addition, time-domain nonlinear SSI analysis was performed with the soil's nonlinearity to show this study's applicability. As a result of nonlinear SSI analysis, plastic deformation was concentrated in the soil around the foundation. The analysis results found that the analysis method combining BRM and PML can be effectively applied to the seismic response analysis of nuclear power plant structures.