• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.855-864
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• 2013

The dynamic characteristics of natural rubber bearings, which are used as isolator, are dependent on the main rubber's dynamic behaviors and nonlinear properties. Rubber materials tend to undergo an aging process under the influence of mechanical or environmental factors, so they inevitably end up facing damage. A main cause of aging like this is known to be oxidization, which occurs through the heat of reaction at high temperatures. Accordingly, in this study an accelerated thermal aging test was carried out in order to compare the characteristic values of the bearings before and after thermal aging occurs. As a result of this experiment, it was found that a thermal aging phenomenon could have some effects on shear stiffness, energy absorption, and equivalent damping coefficients of the bearings. Furthermore, a deterioration in the dynamic properties of the natural rubber bearings caused by the thermal aging was applied to an actual bridge and then the effects of such thermal aging on the seismic performance of the bridge were also compared and analyzed based on numerical analysis. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the changes in the basic properties of the natural rubber bearings caused by the thermal aging bring only a minor effect on the seismic performance of bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.2A
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• pp.109-116
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• 2012

The dynamic properties of lead rubber bearings, which are used as isolator, are dependent on the main rubber's dynamic behaviors and nonlinear qualities. Rubber materials tend to undergo an aging process under the influence of mechanical or environmental factors, so they can end up inevitably facing damage. A main cause of such aging is known to be oxidization, which occurs through the heat of reaction at high temperatures. Accordingly, in this study an accelerated thermal aging test was carried out in order to compare the characteristic values of the bearings with each other before and after thermal aging occurs. As a result of this experiment, it was found that a thermal aging phenomenon could have an effect on shear stiffness, energy absorption, and equivalent damping coefficients. Furthermore, a decline in the dynamic properties of the lead rubber bearings by means of the thermal aging process was applied to an actual bridge and the effects of such thermal aging on the seismic performance of the bridge were also compared and analyzed based on numerical analysis. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the changes in the basic properties of the lead rubber bearings have a minor effect on the seismic performance of bridges.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.52-58
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• 2016

Recently, interest in structural stability has increased due to earthquakes. Isolation systems can improve seismic ability without harming the functions and appearance of existing and new constructions, and they have established efficiency in foreign country that have experienced earthquakes. In this study, an isolation system is suggested using a natural rubber bearing (NRB) on a stainless water tank for stability assurance in an earthquake. A shaking table test was carried out to evaluate the seismic capacity of a non-isolated water tank and an isolated tank. Displacement meters in the water tank measured the behavior characteristics of the tanks, which were compared using artificial seismic waves of 0.154 g, 0.231 g, 0.341 g, and 0.348 g with water levels of 0.0 m, 1.5 m, and 2.5 m. At 2.5 m, a decrement effect was generally shown in the isolated water tank, and a bigger displacement occurred in the non-isolated water tank than in the isolated one at water levels of 0.0 m and 1.5 m. It is interpreted that the weight of different water levels affects the decrement effect. If seismic reinforcement is done, the isolated bearing should be designed while considering the fluid storage level.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.213-219
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• 2021

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a commercialized friction material in friction pendulum systems used for earthquake hazard mitigation in structures, and it has excellent chemical resistance and frictional performance. However, PTFE has a relatively low wear resistance for the friction pendulum systems in service. As an alternative to PTFE, a cost-effective frictional material, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) strengthened by magnesium oxide (MgO), with enhanced wear resistance performance is proposed in this study. The frictional performance of the developed PVDF/MgO was evaluated through experiments and compared with that of PTFE. Accordingly, a friction pendulum system was designed using the measured friction coefficient. The performance of this friction pendulum system was evaluated via nonlinear time history analyses of bridges. Subsequently, the plausibility of using PVDF/MgO as an alternative to PTFE as a friction material for friction pendulum systems was discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.117-120
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• 2008

The bridge bearings are devices absorbing the displacements of the superstructure. KS F 4420 relative to the design of elastomeric bearings in Korea allows shear deformation up to 70% of total rubber height. For the elastomeric bearings to fulfill their shear function required in the design, the stability of allowable shear strain of elastomeric bearings relative to the shear failure should be guaranteed. Moreover considering the possibility that elastomeric bearings are applied to the seismic design together with isolation devices, elastomeric bearings is supposed to display higher shear performance. In this paper ultimate shear performance tests were performed. The measured ultimate shear strains were over 200%. Therefore an allowable shear strain provision becomes safe. But elastomeric bearings expected to show their performance in one united body reveled the separation of components near 200% shear strain. These separation in elastomeric bearing can cause unexpected impact or concentrated stress to bridge system considering to application of seismic design. Therefore provision relevant to separation problem is necessary.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.37-44
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• 2018

A base isolation system is widely used to reduce seismic responses of low-rise buildings. This system cannot be effectively applied to high-rise buildings because the initial stiffness of the high-rise building with the base isolation system maintains almost the same as the building without the base isolation system to set the yield shear force of the base isolation system larger than the design wind load. To solve this problem, the mid-story isolation system was proposed and applied to many buildings. The mid-story isolation system has two major objectives; first to reduce peak story drift and second to reduce peak drift of the isolation story. Usually, these two objectives are in conflict. In this study, a hybrid mid-story isolation system for a tall building is proposed. A MR (magnetorheological) damper was used to develop the hybrid mid-story isolation system. An existing building with mid-story isolation system, that is "Shiodome Sumitomo Building" a high rise building having a large atrium in the lower levels, was used for control performance evaluation of the hybrid mid-story isolation system. Fuzzy logic controller and genetic algorithm were used to develop the control algorithm for the hybrid mid-story isolation system. It can be seen from analytical results that the hybrid mid-story isolation system can provide better control performance than the ordinary mid-story isolation system and the design process developed in this study is useful for preliminary design of the hybrid mid-story isolation system for a tall building.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.51-59
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• 2019

A hybrid mid-story seismic isolation system with a smart damper has been proposed to mitigate seismic responses of tall buildings. Based on previous research, a hybrid mid-story seismic isolation system can provide effective control performance for reduction of seismic responses of tall buildings. Structural design of the hybrid mid-story seismic isolation system is generally performed after completion of structural design of a building structure. This design concept is called as an iterative design which is a general design process for structures and control devices. In the iterative design process, optimal design solution for the structure and control system is changed at each design stage. To solve this problem, the integrated optimal design method for the hybrid mid-story seismic isolation system and building structure was proposed in this study. An existing building with mid-story isolation system, i.e. Shiodome Sumitomo Building, was selected as an example structure for more realistic study. The hybrid mid-story isolation system in this study was composed of MR (magnetorheological) dampers. The stiffnessess and damping coefficients of the example building, maximum capacity of MR damper, and stiffness of isolation bearing were simultaneously optimized. Multi-objective genetic optimization method was employed for the simultaneous optimization of the example structure and the mid-story seismic isolation system. The optimization results show that the simultaneous optimization method can provide better control performance than the passive mid-story isolation system with reduction of structural materials.