• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.45-53
• /
• 2009

More than 40% of railway bridges on the conventional lines in Korea consist of track-on-steel plate girder (TOSPG) bridges. This type of bridge is typically designed without considering seismic loadings, as most of them were built before 1970. The seismic performance of this particular type of bridge could be upgraded through various seismic retrofit schemes, and seismic risk assessment could play a key role in decision-making on the level of the seismic retrofit. This study performed a seismic risk assessment of TOSPG bridges in Korea. The seismic damage of several crucial components of TOSPG bridges--fixed bearings, free bearings, and piers--were probabilistically estimated, and their seismic fragility curves were developed. The probability that the components would exceed their predefined limit states was also calculated by combining the fragility curves and the seismic hazard function. The analysis showed that the piers of TOSPG bridges, which are made of plain concrete without rebars, have relatively low risk against seismic loadings in Korea. This is because the mass of the superstructures of TOSPG bridges is relatively small, and hence, the seismic loading being transferred to the piers is minimal. The line-type bearings typically used for TOSPG bridges, however, are exposed to a degree of seismic risk. Among the bearings, the probability of the free-end bearings and the fixed-end bearings exceeding the slight damage state in 50 years was found to be 12.78% and 4.23%, respectively. The gap between these probability values lessened towards more serious damage states. This study could effectively provide an engineering background for decision-making activities on the seismic retrofit of railway bridges.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.593-599
• /
• 2018

The onset times of P- and S-waves are important information to have reliable earthquake locations, 1D or 3D subsurface velocity structures, and other related studies in seismology. As the number of seismic stations increases significantly in recent years, it becomes a formidable task for network operators to pick phase arrivals manually. This study used a simple method to estimate additional P- and S-wave arrival times for local earthquakes when a priori information (event location and time) is available using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). We applied the AIC program to the earthquake data recorded at the seismic station located in Gyeongsan (DAG2). The comparisons of automatically estimated phase arrival times with manually picked onset times showed that 95.1% and 93.7% of P-wave and S-wave arrival time estimations, respectively, are less than 0.1 second difference. The higher percentage of agreement presented the method which can be successfully applied to large data sets recorded by high-density seismic arrays.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.114-120
• /
• 2009

Rupture directivity is the important parameter in estimating damage due to earthquakes. However, the traditional moment tensor inversion technique cannot resolve the real fault plane or the rupture directivity. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a new inversion algorithm to determine the moment tensor solution and the rupture directivity for moderate earthquakes, using the waveform inversion technique in the frequency domain. Numerical experiments for unilateral and bilateral rupture models with various rupture velocities confirm that the method can resolve the ambiguity of the fault planes and the rupture directivity successfully. To verify the feasibility of the technique, we tested the sensitivity to velocity models, which must be the most critical factor in practice. The results of the sensitivity tests show that the method can be applied even though the velocity model is not perfect. If this method is applied in regions where the velocity model is well verified, we can estimate the rupture directivity of a moderate earthquake. This method makes a significant contribution to understanding the characteristics of earthquakes in those regions.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.573-581
• /
• 2001

110 earthquake parameters (origin time, epicentral location and magnitude) were determined from 533 event records between 1905 and 1942 using data mainly from the "Annual Report of the Meteorological Observatory of the Government General of Tyosen" We adopted epicentral coordinates from the original reports for 34 events and from the Japanese Central Meteorological Observatory far another .34 events. We determined epicenters for 37 events using arrival time information from the reports. We adopted 4 epicenters from the International Seismological Summary and I from the Chinese bulletin. To determine the magnitude, we applied Tsuboi (1954) formula which is currently employed by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) for 94 events. For 16 events, we determined magnitude from the reef)reed felt epicentral areal using the correlation equation between known magnitude and felt area.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.11 no.3 s.55
• /
• pp.11-21
• /
• 2007

Potential damage and losses associated with structural systems caused by earthquake can be reduced by application of seismic design to the structures. Because the building cost required for seismic design is generally higher than the cost for non-seismic design, the application of seismic design must be justified considering both seismic performance and cost. This paper presents a risk-based fiamework for evaluation and comparison of seismic performance of structures such that necessary data can be supplied for decision making on seismic design. Seismic fragility curve is utilized for seismic risk assessment of structures, and the process for decision analysis on adaptation of seismic design is presented based on the equivalent cost model.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.87-97
• /
• 2002

P wave travel-time delays have been analyzed and average travel-time anomalies due to lateral variation of the crustal structure have been calculated at the broad-band earthquake observatories of Korea Meteorology Administration (KMA) using the teleseismic deata collected during the period from 2000 to 2001. Maximum variation in the relative travel-time residuals is almost 1.5 seconds Azimuthal variation in the travel-time residuals is observed to indicate the existence of lateral P velocity heterogeneity beneath the stations with velocity contrasts of -4~4%. The estimated average travel-time delays are ranging from 0.05 to 0.3 seconds at the stations including Seoul, Chuncheon, Kanneung, Uljin, and Ulleung Island showing slow velocity contrasts of 0~4% P through the crust. Faster velocity contrasts of 0~4% have been observed at the stations including Seosan, Taejeon, Daegu, Seoguipo, and Busan showing average travel-time delays ranging from -0.05 to -0.3 seconds.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.33-44
• /
• 2008

Most of the civil structure - bridges, offshore structures, plant, etc. - have been designed by the classical approaches which deal with all the design parameters as deterministic variables. However, some more advanced techniques are required to evaluate the inherent randomness and uncertainty of each design variable. In this research, a seismic safety assessment algorithm based on the structural reliability analysis has been formulated and computerized for more reasonable seismic design of turbine-generator foundations. The formulation takes the design parameters of the system and loading properties as random variables. Using the proposed method, various kinds of parametric studies have been performed and probabilistic characteristics of the resulted structural responses have been evaluated. Afterwards, the probabilistic safety of the system has been quantitatively evaluated and finally presented as the reliability indexes and failure probabilities. The proposed procedure is expected to be used as a fundamental tool to improve the existing design techniques of turbine-generator foundations.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.33-46
• /
• 1999

In spite of 6.8 magnitude and the neighborhood of the epicenter, the steel moment frame survived after Northridge earthquake without collapse or casualties. However, following investigation revealed that there were severe damages at the column-weld interface of welded flange-bolted web (WFBW) steel moment connection, which was believed to be economic and safe from earthquakes based on experience and past tests. In this paper, this unexpected brittle fracture of the steel moment connection is explored using linear elastic fracture mechanics and post-Northridge tests. A method to predict the brittle fracture strength of the steel moment connection is proposed. Using this method, the failure mode of the WFBW connection and reduced beam section (RBS) connection are presented.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.77-86
• /
• 1999

In the previous $paper^{(1),(2)}$, a geometrically non-linear finite element formulation of spatial cables subjected to self-weights and support motions was presented using multiple noded cable elements and how to determine the initial equililbrium state of cables was addressed. In this paper, in order to perform dynamic non-linear analysis of ocean cables subjected to support motions and earthquakes, a numerical method to calculate Morison forces and incorporate effects of earthquake motions is presented based on the Newmark method. Challenging example problems are presented in order to investigate dynamic non-linear behaviors of ocean cables subjected to support motions and earthquake loadings.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.25-33
• /
• 2011

In the nonlinear response history analysis of building structures, the input ground accelerations have considerable effect on the nonlinear response characteristics of structural systems. As the properties of the ground motion, using time history analysis, are interrelated with many factors such as the fault mechanism, the seismic wave propagation from source to site, and the amplification characteristics of the soil, it is difficult to properly select the input ground motions for seismic response analysis. In this paper, the most unfavourable real seismic design ground motions were selected as input motions. The artificial earthquake waves were generated according to these earthquake events. The artificial waves have identical phase angles to the recorded earthquake waves, and their overall response spectra are compatible with the seismic design spectrum with 5% of critical viscous damping. It is concluded that the artificial earthquake waves simulated in this paper are applicable as input ground motions for a seismic response analysis of building structures.