• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.417-423
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• 2006

The seismic characteristics with 3-Dimensional isolation systems have been studied using a shaking table system. In this study, we made nuclear power plant main control room floor systems and several seismic shaking table tests with and without isolation systems were conducted to evaluate floor isolation effectiveness. Isolation systems have showed large reduction effectiveness in acceleration and response spectra with x and z direction respectively, but horizontal isolation is more effective than vertical one It is required to make isolation systems of which design frequency is below 1Hz when applied to main control room of NPP, but considering much difficulties in making such isolation systems, it is recommended that much consideration should be taken into account when applied to main control room of NPP.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.293-302
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• 2015

ASCE 4 requires that a hard stop be built around the seismic isolation system in nuclear power plants. In order to maintain the function of the isolation system, this hard stop is required to have clearance-to-stop, which should be no less than the 90th-percentile displacements for 150% Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) shaking. Huang et al. calculated clearance-to-stop by using a Latin Hypercube Sampling technique, without considering the rocking behavior of the isolated structure. This paper investigates the effects on estimation of clearance-to-stop due to 1) rocking behavior of the isolated structure and 2) sampling technique for considering the uncertainties of isolation system. This paper explains the simplified analysis model to consider the rocking behavior of the isolated structure, and the input earthquakes recorded at Diablo Canyon in the western United States. In order to more accurately approximate the distribution tail of the horizontal displacement in the isolated structure, a modified Latin Hypercube Sampling technique is proposed, and then this technique was applied to consider the uncertainty of the isolation system. Through the use of this technique, it was found that rocking behavior has no significant effect on horizontal displacement (and thus clearance-to-stop) of the isolated structure, and the modified Latin Hypercube Sampling technique more accurately approximates the distribution tail of the horizontal displacement than the existing Latin Hypercube Sampling technique.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.141-150
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• 2014

A methodology to evaluate the seismic performance of interface piping systems that cross the isolation interface in the seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) was developed. The developed methodology was applied to the safety-related interface piping system to demonstrate the seismic performance of the target piping system. Not only the seismic performance for the design level earthquakes but also the performance for the beyond design level earthquakes were evaluated. Two artificial seismic ground input motions which were matched to the design response spectra and two historical earthquake ground motions were used for the seismic analysis of piping system. The preliminary performance evaluation results show that the excessive relative displacements can occur in the seismically isolated piping system. If the input ground motion contained relatively high energy in the low frequency region, we could find that the stress response of the piping system exceed the allowable stress level even though the intensity of the input ground motion is equal to the design level earthquake. The structural responses and seismic performances of piping system were varied sensitively with respect to the intensities and frequency contents of input ground motions. Therefore, for the application of isolation system to NPPs and the verification of the safety of piping system, the seismic performance of the piping system subjected to the earthquake at the target NPP site should be evaluated firstly.

• 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 Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.245-255
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• 2013

According to natural frequency of soil, characteristics of earthquake responses of an isolated containment building in nuclear power plants are examined. For this, earthquake response analysis of seismically isolated containment buildings in nuclear power plants is carried out by strictly considering soil-structure interactions. The structure and near-field soil are modeled by the finite element method while far-field soil by consistent transmitting boundary. The equation of motion of a soil-structure interaction system under incident seismic wave is derived. The derived equations of motion are solved to carry out earthquake analysis of a seismically isolated soil-structure system. Generally, the results of this analysis show that seismic isolation significantly reduces the responses of the soil-structure system. However, if the natural frequency of the soil is similar to that of the soil-structure system, the responses of the containment buildings in nuclear power plants rather increases due to interactions in the system.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2017

In order to modeling seismic isolation system such as lead-rubber bearing (LRB), bilinear model is widely used by many researchers. In general, an actual force-displacement relationship for LRB has a smooth hysteretic shape. So, Bouc-Wen model with smooth hysteretic shape represents more accurately actual hysteretic shape than bilinear model. In this study, seismic responses for seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) with LRB modelled by Bouc-Wen and bilinear models are compared with those of NPP without seismic isolation system. To evaluate effect of earthquake characteristics for seismic responses of NPP isolated by LRB, 5 different site class earthquakes distinguished by Geomatrix 3rd Letter Site Classification and artificially generated earthquakes corresponding to standard design spectrum by Reg. Guide 1.60 are used as input earthquakes. From the seismic response results of seismically isolated NPP, it can be observed that maximum displacements of seismic isolation modelled by Bouc-Wen model are larger than those by bilinear model. Seismic responses of NPP with LRB is significantly reduced than those without LRB. This reduction effect for seismic responses of NPP subjected to Site A (rock) earthquakes is larger than that to Site E (soft soil) earthquakes.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.207-217
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• 2015

In order to increase seismic performance of nuclear power plant (NPP) in strong seismic zone, lead-rubber bearing (LRB) can be applied to seismic isolation system of NPP structures. Simple equivalent linear model as structural analysis model of LRB is more widely used in initial design process of LRB than a bilinear model. Seismic responses for seismically isolated NPP containment structures subjected to earthquakes categorized into 5 different soil-site classes are calculated by both of the equivalent linear- and bilinear- LRB models and compared each others. It can be observed that the maximum displacements of LRB and shear forces of containment in the case of the equivalent linear LRB model are larger than those in the case of bilinear LRB model. From the seismic fragility curves of NPP containment structures isolated by LRB, it can be observed that seismic fragility in the case of equivalent linear LRB model are about 5~30 % larger than those in the case of bilinear LRB model.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.291-299
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• 2014

There has been an increasing demand for introducing a base isolation system to secure the seismic safety of a nuclear power plant. However, the design criteria and the safety assessment methodology of a base isolated nuclear facility are still being developed. A performance based design concept for the base isolation system needs to be added to the general seismic design procedures. For the base isolation system, the displacement responses of isolators excited by the extended design basis earthquake are important as well as the design displacement. The possible displacement response by the extended design basis earthquake should be limited less than the failure displacement of the isolator. The failure of isolators were investigated by an experimental test to define the ultimate strain level of rubber bearings. The uncertainty analysis, considering the variations of the mechanical properties of isolators and input ground motions, was performed to estimate the probabilistic distribution of the isolator displacement. The relationship of the displacement response by each ground motion level was compared in view of a period elongation and a reduction of damping. Finally, several examples of isolator parameters are calculated and the considerations for an acceptable isolation design is discussed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.265-275
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• 2017

In order to improve the seismic performance of structures, friction pendulum system (FPS) is the most commonly used seismic isolation device in addition to lead rubber bearing (LRB) in high seismicity area. In a nuclear power plant (NPP) with a large self weight, it is necessary to install a large number of seismic isolation devices, and the position of the center of rigidity varies depending on the arrangement of the seismic isolation devices. Due to the increase in the eccentricity, which is the difference between the center of gravity of the nuclear structure and the center of stiffness of the seismic isolators, an excessive seismic response may occur which could not be considered at the design stage. Three different types of eccentricity models (CASE 1, CASE 2, and CASE 3) were used for seismic response evaluation of seismically isolated NPP due to the increase of eccentricity (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%). The analytical model of the seismic isolation system was compared using the equivalent linear model and the bilinear model. From the results of the seismic response of the seismically isolated NPP with increasing eccentricity, it can be observed that the effect of eccentricity on the seismic response for the equivalent linear model is larger than that for the bilinear model.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.125-134
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• 2016

In order to improve seismic safety of nuclear power plant (NPP) structures in high seismicity area, seismic isolation system can be adapted. In this study, friction pendulum system (FPS) is used as the seismic isolation system. According to Coulomb's friction theory, friction coefficient is constant regardless of bearing pressure and sliding velocity. However, friction coefficient under actual situation can be changed according to bearing pressure, sliding velocity and temperature. Seismic responses of friction pendulum system with constant friction and various velocity-dependent friction are compared. The velocity-dependent friction coefficients of FPS are varied between low-and fast-velocity friction coefficients according to sliding velocity. From the results of seismic analysis of FPS with various cases of friction coefficient, it can be observed that the yield force of FPS becomes larger as the fast-velocity friction coefficient becomes larger. Also, the displacement response of FPS becomes smaller as the fast-velocity coefficient becomes larger.