• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.153-167
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• 2022

The interaction between blast load and structures, as well as the interaction among structural members may well affect the structural response and damages. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse more realistic reinforced concrete structures in order to gain an extensive knowledge on the possible structural response under blast load effect. Among all the civilian structures, columns are considered to be the most vulnerable to terrorist threat and hence detailed investigation in the dynamic response of these structures is essential. Therefore, current research examines the effect of blast loads on the reinforced concrete columns via development of Pressure- Impulse (P-I) diagrams. In the finite element analysis, the level of damage on each of the aforementioned RC column will be assessed and the response of the RC columns when subjected to explosive loads will also be identified. Numerical models carried out using LS-DYNA were compared with experimental results. It was shown that the model yields a reliable prediction of damage on all RC columns. Validation study is conducted based on the experimental test to investigate the accuracy of finite element models to represent the behaviour of the models. The blast load application in the current research is determined based on the Lagrangian approach. To develop the designated P-I curves, damage assessment criteria are used based on the residual capacity of column. Intensive investigations are implemented to assess the effect of column dimension, concrete and steel properties and reinforcement ratio on the P-I diagram of RC columns. The produced P-I models can be applied by designers to predict the damage of new columns and to assess existing columns subjected to different blast load conditions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.145-151
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• 2019

The fragility analyses for the partially filled horizontal cylindrical tank having a flexible wall were conducted to evaluate seismic performance. An equivalent simplified model with two lumped masses representing to impulsive and convective masses was used to represent the liquid storage system. This simplified model was validated by comparing its time history analysis results with the 3D FSI model results. The horizontal tank was analyzed under bi-directional excitations. Seismic fragility curves for the stability were developed in transverse and longitudinal directions. Fragility curves show that seismic damage for the horizontal storage system is more susceptible in the transverse direction.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.173-190
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• 2015

This study presents an analytical investigation on the seismic response of a medium-rise buckling-restrained braced frame (BRBF) under the near-fault ground motions. A seven-story BRBF is designed as per the current code provisions for five different combinations of brace configurations and beam-column connections. Two types of brace configurations (i.e., Chevron and Double-X) are considered along with a combination of the moment-resisting and the non-moment-resisting beam-to-column connections for the study frame. Nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out for all study frames for an ensemble of forty SAC near-fault ground motions. The main parameters evaluated are the interstory and residual drift response, brace displacement ductility, and plastic hinge mechanisms. Fragility curves are developed using log-normal probability density functions for all study frames considering the interstory drift ratio and residual drift ratio as the damage parameters. The average interstory drift response of BRBFs with Double-X brace configurations significantly exceeded the allowable drift limit of 2%. The maximum displacement ductility characteristics of BRBs is efficiently utilized under the seismic loading if these braces are arranged in the Double-X configurations instead of Chevron configurations in BRBFs located in the near-fault regions. However, BRBFs with the Double-X brace configurations exhibit the higher interstory drift and residual drift response under near-fault ground motions due to the formation of plastic hinges in the columns and beams at the intermediate story levels.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2009

The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental damage and income, and such curves have been used to study how economic growth affects the environment. In this study, we analyzed data for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and for sulfur emissions in the industrialized countries of the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Japan, as well as data for the developing country of China, to determine the relationship between emissions and income in these countries. Attempts by these countries' governments to incorporate environmental policy considerations into the income-environment relationship were also examined. The potential role of the environmental Kuznets curve as a policy tool was investigated. We determined that, at least in the case of sulfur emissions, policies and institutions significantly reduced environmental degradation in the industrialized countries studied. Furthermore, the environmental Kuznets curve can reliably predict the future relationship between environmental impact and GDP for developing countries.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07c
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• pp.1085-1087
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• 1999

In this paper, we propose the method for assessing the effect of voltage sag in power distribution system using fuzzy risk assessment model. The proposed method is based on SCBEMA curve that expresses the representative susceptibility curve by voltage sag for each customer type. These corves are made using the CBEMA curves obtained from the experiment for the customers'sensitive equipment. In order to transform SCBEMA curves to the probability damage by voltage sag, the fuzzy risk assessment model is used in this paper. Case studies were performed to analyze the effect of voltage sag by varying parameters. The Monte Carlo simulation method and the historical reliability data in KEPCO are used for case studies.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.391-405
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• 2020

The use of passive energy dissipation devices has been widely used in the construction industry to minimize the probability of damage occurred under intense ground motion. In this study, collapse margin ratio (CMR) and fragility curves are the main parameters in the assessment to characterize the collapse safety of the structures. The assessment is done on three types of RC frame structures, incorporating three types of dampers, viscoelastic, friction, and BRB dampers. The Incremental dynamic analyses (IDA) were performed by simulating an array of 20 strong ground motion (SGM) records considering both far-field and near-field seismic scenarios that were followed by fragility curves. With respect to far-field ground motion records, the CMR values of the selected frames indicate to be higher and reachable to safety margin more than those under near-field ground motion records that introduce a high devastating impact on the structures compared to far-field excitations. This implies that the near field impact affects the ground movements at the site by attenuation the direction and causing high-frequency filtration. Besides that, the results show that the viscoelastic damper gives better performance for the structures in terms of reducing the damages compared to the other energy dissipation devices during earthquakes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.259-268
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• 2017

In this paper, the incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis is used to evaluate the seismic performance of steel moment frame structures. To this purpose, three special moment frame structure with 5, 10 and 15 stories are designed according to the Iran's national building code for steel structures and the provisions for design of earthquake resistant buildings (2800 code). Incremental Nonlinear Analysis (IDA) is performed for 15 different ground motions, and responses of the structures are evaluated. For the immediate occupancy and the collapse prevention performance levels, the probability that seismic demand exceeds the seismic capacity of the structures is computed based on FEMA350. Also, fragility curves are plotted for three high-code damage levels using HASUS provisions. Based on the obtained results, it is evident that increase in the height of the frame structures reduces the reliability level. In addition, it is concluded that for the design earthquake the probability of exceeding average collapse prevention level is considerably larger than high and full collapse prevention levels.9.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.53-59
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• 2010

A fatigue damage caused by cyclic load is considered as one of the important failure mechanisms that threaten the integrity of structures and components in a nuclear power plant. In ASME code section III NB, the fatigue analysis procedure and standard S-N curves for the class 1 components are described and these criteria should be met at the design step of components. As the current ASME S-N curves are based on the very conservative assumptions such as a local stress concentration effect, immoderate transient frequencies and a constant Young's modulus, however, they can not precisely address the fatigue behavior of components. In order to find out the technical solution for these problems, a number of researches and discussion have been carried out continuously at home and abroad over the decades. In this study, detailed fatigue analyses for DVI nozzle with various mesh density of finite elements were performed to evaluate effect of stress concentration factors on the fatigue analysis procedure and the excessive conservatism of stress concentration factors are confirmed through the analysis results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.649-673
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• 2012

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of accounting for aging and deterioration of bridges when estimating their seismic vulnerability. Effects of structural degradation of multiple bridge components, variations in bridge geometry, and comparison of different environmental exposure conditions have traditionally been ignored in the development of seismic fragility curves for aging concrete highway bridges. This study focuses on the degradation of multiple bridge components of a geometrically varying bridge class, as opposed to a single bridge sample, to arrive at time-dependent seismic bridge fragility curves. The effects of different exposure conditions are also explored to assess the impact of severity of the environment on bridge seismic vulnerability. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on a representative class of aging multi-span reinforced concrete girder bridges typical of the Central and Southeastern United States. The results reveal the importance of considering multiple deterioration mechanisms, including the significance of degrading elastomeric bearings along with the corroding reinforced concrete columns, in fragility modeling of aging bridge classes. Additionally, assessment of the relative severity of exposure to marine atmospheric, marine sea-splash and deicing salts, and shows 5%, 9% and 44% reduction, respectively, in the median value bridge fragility for the complete damage state relative to the as-built pristine structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.803-819
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• 2013

This paper addresses two main issues relevant to the structural assessment of buildings subjected to explosions. The first issue regards the robustness evaluation of steel frame structures: a procedure is provided for computing "robustness curves" and it is applied to a 20-storey steel frame building, describing the residual strength of the (blast) damaged structure under different local damage levels. The second issue regards the precise evaluation of blast pressures acting on structural elements using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) techniques. This last aspect is treated with particular reference to gas explosions, focusing on some critical parameters (room congestion, failure of non-structural walls and ignition point location) which influence the development of the explosion. From the analyses, it can be deduced that, at least for the examined cases, the obtained robustness curves provide a suitable tool that can be used for risk management and assessment purposes. Moreover, the variation of relevant CFD analysis outcomes (e.g., pressure) due to the variation of the analysis parameters is found to be significant.