• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-38
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• 2014

As the desire for high performance buildings increases, it is increasingly evident that engineers require reliable methods for the estimation of seismic demands on both structural and non-structural components. To this extent, improved tools for the prediction of floor spectra would assist in the assessment of acceleration sensitive non-structural and secondary components. Recently, a new procedure was successfully developed and tested for the simplified construction of floor spectra, at various levels of elastic damping, atop single-degree-of-freedom structures. This paper extends the methodology to multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) supporting systems responding in the elastic range, proposing a simplified modal combination approach for floor spectra over upper storeys and accounting for the limited filtering of the ground motion input that occurs over lower storeys. The procedure is tested numerically by comparing predictions with floor spectra obtained from time-history analyses of RC wall structures of 2- to 20-storeys in height. Results demonstrate that the method performs well for MDOF systems responding in the elastic range. Future research should further develop the approach to permit the prediction of floor spectra in MDOF systems that respond in the inelastic range.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.5
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• pp.575-589
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• 2018

It is well known that the incidence angle of seismic excitation has an influence on the structural response of buildings, and this effect can be more significant in the case of near-fault signals. However, current seismic codes do not include detailed requirements regarding the direction of application of the seismic action and they have only recently introduced specific provisions about near-fault earthquakes. Thus, engineers have the task of evaluating all the relevant directions or the most critical conditions case by case, in order to avoid underestimating structural demand. To facilitate the identification of the most critical incidence angle, this paper presents a procedure which makes use of a two-degree of freedom model for representing a building. The proposed procedure makes it possible to avoid the extensive computational effort of multiple dynamic analyses with varying angles of incidence of ground motion excitation, which is required if a spatial multi-degree of freedom model is used for representing a building. The procedure is validated through the analysis of two case studies consisting of an eight- and a six-storey reinforced concrete frame building, selected as representative of existing structures located in Italy. A set of 124 near-fault ground motion records oriented along 8 incidence angles, varying from 0 to 180 degrees, with increments of 22.5 degrees, is used to excite the structures. Comparisons between the results obtained with detailed models of the two structures and the proposed procedure are used to show the accuracy of the latter in the prediction of the most critical angle of seismic incidence.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.221-230
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the seismic performance of hollow RC bridge columns with reinforcement details for material quantity reduction. The proposed reinforcement details provide economy, are rational and shorthen the construction periods. The accuracy and objectivity of the assessment process can be enhanced by using a sophisticated nonlinear finite element analysis program. Solution of the equations of motion is obtained by numerical integration using Hilber-Hughes-Taylor (HHT) algorithm. The adopted numerical method gives a realistic prediction of seismic performance throughout the input ground motions for several test specimens investigated. As a result, the proposed reinforcement details for material quantity reduction develop equal performance to that required for existing reinforcement details.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.28-34
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• 2002

The b-value in the magnitude-frequency relationship logN(m) = $\alpha$ - bmwhere N(m) is the number of earthquakes exceeding magnitude m, is important seismicity parameter In hazard analysis. Estimation of the b-value for earthquake data observed on KSRS array network is done employing the maximum likelihood technique. Assuming the whole Korea Peninsula as a single seismic source area, the b-value is computed at 0.9. The estimation for KMA earthquake data is also similar to that. Since estimate is a function of minimum magnitude, we can inspect the completeness of earthquake catalog in the fitting process of b-value. KSRS and KMA data lists are probably incomplete for magnitudes less than 2.0 and 3.0, respectively. Examples from probabilistic seismic hazard assessment calculated for a range of b-value show that the small change of b-value has seriously effect on the prediction of ground motion.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2017

This study investigates the seismic performance of solid reinforced concrete columns with triangular reinforcement details using nonlinear seismic analysis. The developed reinforcement details are economically feasible and rational, and facilitate shorter construction periods. By using a sophisticated nonlinear finite element analysis program, the accuracy and objectivity of the assessment process can be enhanced. Solution of the equations of motion is obtained by numerical integration using Hilber-Hughes-Taylor (HHT) algorithm. The proposed numerical method gives a realistic prediction of seismic performance throughout the input ground motions for several column specimens. As a result, developed triangular reinforcement details were designed to be superior to the existing reinforcement details in terms of required performance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.343-362
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• 2004

Rocking response of rigid bodies with rectangular footprint, freely standing on horizontal rigid plane is studied analytically. Bodies are subjected to simulated single component of horizontal earthquakes. The effect of baseline correction, applied to simulated excitations, on the rocking response is first examined. The sensitiveness of rocking motion to the details of earthquakes and geometric properties of rigid bodies is investigated. Due to the demonstrated sensitivity of rocking response to these factors, prediction of rocking stability must be made in the framework of probability theory. Therefore, using a large number of simulated earthquakes, the effects of duration and shape of intensity function of simulated earthquakes on overturning probability of rigid bodies are studied. In the case when a rigid body is placed on any floor of a building, the corresponding probability is compared to that of a body placed on the ground. For this purpose, several shear frames are employed. Finally, the viability of the energy balance equation, which was introduced by Housner in 1963 and widely used by nuclear power industry to estimate the rocking stability of bodies, is evaluated. It is found that the equation is robust. Examples are also given to show how this equation can be used.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.151-160
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• 2014

Probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) is based on the approach of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) which is performed using various seismotectonic models and ground-motion prediction equations. The major difference between PTHA and PSHA is that PTHA requires the wave parameters of tsunami. The wave parameters can be estimated from tsunami propagation analysis. Therefore, a tsunami simulation analysis was conducted for the purpose of evaluating the wave parameters required for the PTHA of Uljin nuclear power plant (NPP) site. The tsunamigenic fault sources in the western part of Japan were chosen for the analysis. The wave heights for 80 rupture scenarios were numerically simulated. The synthetic tsunami waveforms were obtained around the Uljin NPP site. The results show that the wave heights are closely related with the location of the fault sources and the associated potential earthquake magnitudes. These wave parameters can be used as input data for the future PTHA study of the Uljin NPP site.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.15-27
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate the seismic behavior of precast segmental PSC bridge columns. For the analysis of reinforced concrete structures, a computer program named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) is used. To represent the interaction between tendon and concrete of a prestressed concrete member, a bonded or unbonded tendon element based on the finite element method is used. A joint element is modified to predict the inelastic behaviors of segmental joints. The solution of the equations of motion is obtained by numerical integration using Hilber-Hughes-Taylor (HHT) algorithm. The proposed numerical method gives a realistic prediction of seismic behavior throughout the input ground motions for numerical examples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.373-379
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• 2017

Seismic probabilistic safety assessments are used to help understand the impact potential seismic events can have on the operation of a nuclear power plant. An important component to seismic probabilistic safety assessment is the seismic hazard curve which shows the frequency of seismic events. However, these hazard curves are estimated assuming a normal distribution of the seismic events. This may not be a strong assumption given the number of recorded events at each source-to-site distance. The use of a normal distribution makes the calculations significantly easier but may underestimate or overestimate the more rare events, which is of concern to nuclear power plants. This paper shows a preliminary exploration into the effect of using a distribution that perhaps more represents the distribution of events, such as the t-distribution to describe data. The integration of a probability distribution with potentially larger tails basically pushes the hazard curves outward, suggesting a different range of frequencies for use in seismic probabilistic safety assessments. Therefore the use of a more realistic distribution results in an increase in the frequency calculations suggesting rare events are less rare than thought in terms of seismic probabilistic safety assessment. However, the opposite was observed with the ground motion prediction equation considered.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.759-777
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• 2008

A wireless sensing system is designed for application to structural monitoring and damage detection applications. Embedded in the wireless monitoring module is a two-tier prediction model, the auto-regressive (AR) and the autoregressive model with exogenous inputs (ARX), used to obtain damage sensitive features of a structure. To validate the performance of the proposed wireless monitoring and damage detection system, two near full scale single-story RC-frames, with and without brick wall system, are instrumented with the wireless monitoring system for real time damage detection during shaking table tests. White noise and seismic ground motion records are applied to the base of the structure using a shaking table. Pattern classification methods are then adopted to classify the structure as damaged or undamaged using time series coefficients as entities of a damage-sensitive feature vector. The demonstration of the damage detection methodology is shown to be capable of identifying damage using a wireless structural monitoring system. The accuracy and sensitivity of the MEMS-based wireless sensors employed are also verified through comparison to data recorded using a traditional wired monitoring system.