• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.511-519
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• 2019

The concrete gravity dam is one of the most important parts of the nation's infrastructure. Besides the benefits, the dam also has some potentially catastrophic disasters related to the life of citizens directly. During the lifetime of service, some degradations in a dam may occur as consequences of operating conditions, environmental aspects and deterioration in materials from natural causes, especially from dynamic loads. Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV) plays a key role to assess the operational condition of a structure under seismic hazard. In previous researches, CAV is normally used in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) fields, but there are no particular criteria or studies that have been made on dam structure. This paper presents a method to calculate the limitation of CAV for the Bohyeonsan Dam in Korea, where the critical Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) is estimated from twelve sets of selected earthquakes based on High Confidence of Low Probability of Failure (HCLPF). HCLPF point denotes 5% damage probability with 95% confidence level in the fragility curve, and the corresponding PGA expresses the crucial acceleration of this dam. For determining the status of the dam, a 2D finite element model is simulated by ABAQUS. At first, the dam's parameters are optimized by the Minitab tool using the method of Central Composite Design (CCD) for increasing model reliability. Then the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is used for updating the model and the optimization is implemented from the selected model parameters. Finally, the recorded response of the concrete gravity dam is compared against the results obtained from solving the numerical model for identifying the physical condition of the structure.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

Civil structures should be designed with the lowest cost and longest lifetime possible and without service failure. The efficient and sustainable use of materials in building design and construction has always been at the forefront for civil engineers and environmentalists. Timber is one of the best contenders for these purposes particularly in terms of aesthetics; fire protection; strength-to-weight ratio; acoustic properties and seismic resistance. In recent years, timber has been used in commercial and taller buildings due to these significant advantages. It should be noted that, since the launch of the modern building standards and codes, a number of different structural systems have been developed to stabilise steel or concrete multistorey buildings, however, structural analysis of high-rise and multi-storey timber frame buildings subjected to lateral loads has not yet been fully understood. Additionally, timber degradation can occur as a result of biological decay of the elements and overloading that can result in structural damage. In such structures, the deficient members and joints require strengthening in order to satisfy new code requirements; determine acceptable level of safety; and avoid brittle failure following earthquake actions. This paper investigates performance assessment and damage assessment of older multi-storey timber buildings. One approach is to retrofit the beams in order to increase the ductility of the frame. Experimental studies indicate that Sprayed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (SFRP) repairing/retrofitting not only updates the integrity of the joint, but also increases its strength; stiffness; and ductility in such a way that the joint remains elastic. Non-linear finite element analysis ('pushover') is carried out to study the behaviour of the structure subjected to simulated gravity and lateral loads. A new global index is re-assessed for damage assessment of the plain and SFRP-retrofitted frames using capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. This study shows that the proposed method is suitable for structural damage assessment of aged timber buildings. Also SFRP retrofitting can potentially improve the performance and load carrying capacity of the structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.211-238
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• 2016

The Maximum seismic responses of steel buildings with perimeter moment resisting frames (MRF), modeled as complex MDOF systems, are estimated for several incidence angles of the horizontal components and the critical one is identified. The accuracy of the existing rules to combine the effects of the individual components is also studied. Two and three components are considered. The critical response does not occur for principal components and the corresponding incidence angle varies from one earthquake to another. The critical response can be estimated as 1.40 and 1.10 times that of the principal components, for axial load and interstory shears, respectively. The rules underestimate the axial load but reasonably overestimate the shears. The rules are not always inaccurate in the estimation of the combined response for correlated components. On the other hand, totally uncorrelated (principal) components are not always related to an accurate estimation. The correlation of the individual effects (${\rho}$) may be significant, even for principal components. The rules are not always associated to an inaccurate estimation for large values of ${\rho}$, and small values of ${\rho}$ are not always related to an accurate estimation. Only for perfectly uncorrelated harmonic excitations and elastic analysis of SDOF systems, the individual effects of the components are uncorrelated and the rules accurately estimate the combined response. The degree of correlation of the components, the type of structural system, the response parameter under consideration, the location of the structural member and the level of structural deformation must be considered while estimating the level of underestimation or overestimation.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.97-108
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• 2021

In bridge abutment structures, lateral squeeze due to lateral stress of embankment placement and thermal movement of the bridge structure leads to failure of approach slabs, girders, and bridge bearings. Recently, GRS (Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil) integral bridge has been proposed as a new countermeasure. The GRS integral bridge is a combining structure of a GRS retaining wall and an integral abutment bridge. In this study, numerical analyses which considered construction sequences and earthquake loading conditions are performed to compare the behaviors of conventional PSC (Pre-Stressed Concrete) girder bridge, traditional GRS integral bridge structure and GRS integral bridge with bracket structures (newly developed LH-type GRS integral bridge). The analysis results show that the GRS integral bridge with bracket structures is most stable compared with the others in an aspect of stress concentration and deformation on foundation ground including differential settlements between abutment and backfill. Furthermore, the GRS integral bridge with/without bracket structures was found to show the best performance in terms of seismic stability.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.5-12
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• 2019

A pile group, that consists of several piles connected by a pile cap, is used as the superstructure. The pile supports vertical and horizontal load to design the pile group, but the effect of bearing capacity of the pile cap has not considered. Various researches have been conducted to reflect the effect of bearing capacity of the pile cap in order to reduce the amount of piles in the range of the stability under the vertical load of the superstructure. However, the effect of bearing capacity under the horizontal seismic load has not been studied adequately. Therefore, a shaking table test was carried out with different-sized pile caps that support the superstructure in this study. This test was to verify the influence of the size of the pile cap in the group pile under the horizontal load. The result shows that the size of the pile cap affects to the dynamic behavior of the superstructure and the pile group. Also, the bigger size of the pile group makes the larger constraint effect of ground, and it results that both the ground and the pile moves as a whole.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.307-318
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• 2019

The frequently excessive vibrations presented in civil structures during seismic events or service conditions may result in users' discomfort, or worst, in structures failure, producing economic and even human casualties. This work contributes in proposing the synthesis of a nonlinear optimal control strategy for semiactive structural control, with the main characteristic that the synthesis considers both the structure model and the semiactive actuator nonlinear dynamics, which produces a nonlinear system that requires a nonlinear controller design. The aim is to reduce the unwanted vibrations in the response of civil structures, by means of intelligent fluid semiactive actuator such as the Magnetorheological Damper (MRD), which is a device with a low level of power consumption. The civil structures for which the proposed control methodology can be applied are those admitting a state-dependent coefficient factorized representation model, such as buildings, bridges, among others. A scaled model of a three storey building is analyzed as a case study, whose dynamical response involves displacement, velocity and acceleration of each one of the storeys, subjected to the North-South component of the September 19th., 2017, Puebla-Morelos (7.1M), Mexico earthquake. The investigation rests on comparing the structural response over time for two different conditions: with no control device installed and with one MRD installed between the first floor and the ground, where a nonlinear optimal signal for the MRD input voltage is determined. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller for reducing the building's dynamical response.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.569-576
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• 2018

In modern society, a huge number of the buildings have been constructed with RC structure. RC structures have many structural instabilities due to earthquake, typhoon, construction fault, design phase errors. Therefore, many reinforcement methods are being implemented to solve this problem. In the reinforcement method, the organic epoxy adhesive used in the FRP reinforcing method is abruptly damaged when exposed to high temperature, which is directly connected to the fall of the reinforcing material. Therefore, the present study was conducted to develop inorganic refractory mortar with a certain level of adhesion ability to reduce the heat transferred to FRP reinforcement when exposed to high temperatures. As a result of the test, it showed high adhesion strength at room temperature condition with the inclusion of EVA resin, and showed no performance deterioration up to about $300^{\circ}C$ even under heating conditions. Also, it was confirmed that the backside temperature was lower as the thickness increased, and converged to a constant temperature of about $780^{\circ}C$ after 2 hours of heating.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.639-654
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• 2018

Rocking motion have been used for achieving the 'resilient buildings' against earthquakes in recent studies. Low-rise buildings, unlike the tall ones, because of their small aspect ratio tend to slide rather than move in rocking mode. However, since rocking is more effective in seismic response reduction than sliding, it is desired to create rocking motion in low-rise buildings too. One way for this purpose is making the building's structure rock on its internal bay(s) by reducing the number of bays at the lower part of the building's skeleton, giving it a mushroom form. In this study 'mushroom skeleton' has been used for creating multi-story rocking regular steel buildings with square plan to rock on its one-by-one bay central lowest story. To show if this idea is effective, a set of mushroom buildings have been considered, and their seismic responses have been compared with those of their conventional counterparts, designed based on a conventional code. Also, a set of similar buildings with skeleton stronger than code requirement, to have immediate occupancy (IO) performance level, have been considered for comparison. Seismic responses, obtained by nonlinear time history analyses, using scaled three-dimensional accelerograms of selected earthquakes, show that by using appropriate 'mushroom skeleton' the seismic performance of buildings is upgraded to mostly IO level, while all of the conventional buildings experience collapse prevention (CP) level or beyond. The strong-skeleton buildings mostly present IO performance level as well, however, their base shear and absolute acceleration responses are much higher than the mushroom buildings.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.154-162
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• 2019

Large scale damage has been globally increased due to natural disasters such as earthquake. Although a variety of studies secured seismic performance of buildings, casualties and economic loss have occurred because of poor security of seismic performance in non-structural components. Structure's location on which non-structural components are installed and characteristics of vibration occurring on each position of structures are varied, so a response spectrum is required for each position of structures. In addition, a response spectrum occurring in a structure is different, depending on the form of it and positions on which it is installed. Therefore, selection of a response spectrum is important, so a definite method for calculating the response spectrum which acts on non-structural components is necessary. A method for choosing a response spectrum is suggested in this paper, and a structural analysis was conducted with the suggested method, by selecting a ground response spectrum and a structural system, which may occur in Korea. Moreover, it helps create a response spectrum necessary for a seismic test of non-structural components, by suggesting the method for deduction it, with a simple formula.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.807-819
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• 2019

In recent earthquakes, the failure of ceiling systems has been one of the most widely reported damage and the major cause of functionality interruption in some buildings. In an effort to mitigate this damage, some scholars have studied a series of ceiling systems including plaster ceilings and mineral wool ceilings. But few studies have involved the backdrop metal ceiling used in some important constructions with higher rigidity and frequency such as the main control area of nuclear power plants. Therefore, in order to evaluate its seismic performance, a full-scale backdrop metal ceiling system, including steel runners and metal panels, was designed, fabricated and installed in a steel frame in this study. And the backdrop metal ceiling system with two perimeter attachments variants was tested: (i) the ends of the runners were connected with the angle steel to form an effective lateral constraint around the backdrop metal ceiling, (ii) the perimeter attachments of the main runner were retained, but the perimeter attachments of the cross runner were removed. In the experiments, different damage of the backdrop metal ceiling system was observed in detail under various earthquakes. Results showed that the backdrop metal ceiling had good integrity and excellent seismic performance. And the perimeter attachments of the cross runner had an adverse effect on the seismic performance of the backdrop metal ceiling under earthquakes. Meanwhile, a series of seismic construction measures and several suggestions that need to be paid attention were proposed in the text so that the backdrop metal ceiling can be better applied in the main control area of nuclear power plants and other important engineering projects.