• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.419-425
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• 2009

Although earthquake damage was negligible in Korea during the last a few decades, its historic records suggest that the peninsula have experienced severe earthquake damages throughout the history. The potential for disastrous earthquakes, therefore, should always be considered. Harbors handle 99.6% of imported and exported cargo in Korea. Thus, it is necessary to secure the safety of harbors against seismic events and to establish a support system of emergency measures. Although instrumental seismic data are favored for seismic hazard estimation, their history in the peninsula is limited only to the past 30 years, which does not represent the long-term seismic characteristics of the peninsula. We use historic earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5 to observe long-term regional seismic hazards. Results of historic earthquake records indicate relatively high seismic hazard at harbors in Pohang, Ulsan and Incheon. Analysis of instrumental earthquake records reveal relatively high seismic hazard for harbors located along the East coast including Okgye, Mukho, Donghae, Samcheok, Pohang, and Ulsan.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.645-667
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• 2016

The 750 m long "De Bosset" bridge in the Cephalonia Island of Western Greece, being the area with the highest seismicity in Europe, was constructed in 1830 by successive stone arches and stiff block-type piers. The bridge suffered extensive damages during past earthquakes, such as the strong M7.2 earthquake of 1953, followed by poorly-designed reconstruction schemes with reinforced concrete. In 2005, a multidisciplinary project for the seismic assessment and restoration of the "De Bosset" bridge was undertaken under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The proposed retrofitting scheme combining soil improvement, structural strengthening and reconstruction of the deteriorated masonry sections was recently applied on site. Design of the rehabilitation measures and assessment of the pre- and post-interventions seismic response of the bridge were based on detailed in-situ and laboratory tests, providing foundation soil and structural material properties. In-situ inspection of the rehabilitated bridge following the strong M6.1 and M6.0 Cephalonia earthquakes of January 26th and February 3rd 2014, respectively, revealed no damages or visible defects. The efficiency of the bridge retrofitting is also proved by a preliminary performance analysis of the bridge under the recorded ground motion induced by the above earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1043-1060
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• 2016

The engineering background of this article is an ancient wooden building with extremely high historic and cultural values in Tibet. A full understanding of the dynamic behaviour of this historic building under in-service environments is the basis to assess the condition of the structure, especially its responses to earthquake, environmental and operational loading. A dynamic monitoring system has been installed in the building for over one year and the large amounts of high quality data have been obtained. The paper aims at studying the dynamic behaviour of the wooden building in seismic and operational conditions using the field monitoring data. Specifically the effects of earthquake and crowd loading on the structure's dynamic response are investigated. The monitoring data are decomposed into principal components using the Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) technique. The relationship between the average acceleration amplitude and frequencies of the principle components and operational conditions has been discussed. One main contribution is to understand the health condition of complex ancient building based on large databases collected on the field.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.731-742
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• 2020

Due to incessant earthquakes, many historic South Nias traditional timber houses have been damaged while some still stand today. As Nias is part of an extremely active tectonic region and the buildings are getting older by day, it is essential that these unique houses are well maintained and functioning well. A post-earthquake condition assessment was conducted on 2 selected buildings; 'Building A' survived the seismic shakings while 'Building B' got severely damaged. The overall condition assessment of "Building A' was found out to be poor and the main structural members were not performing as intended. In 'Building B', the columns were not well anchored to the ground, no tie beams to tie the columns together, and eventually, the timber columns moved in various directions during the earthquake. The frequent earthquakes along with deterioration due to lack of proper maintenance program are responsible for the non-survival of the buildings. Thus, a process guideline for managing the maintenance of these buildings was proposed. This is necessary because managing the maintenance works could help to extend the life of the buildings and seek to avoid the need for potentially expensive and disruptive intervention works, which may damage the cultural significance of the buildings.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2016

A moment magnitude 3.1 earthquake occurred in the Seoul metropolitan region (SMR), Korea, on 9 February 2010. The unexpected shaking attracted much attention and raised concerns about the seismic hazards and risks in the SMR, which was regarded as an area safe from any earthquake hazard. The SMR has a population of 25 million and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. A shakemap for a scenario earthquake with magnitude 6.5 and focal depth 12 km implies that the SMR will be exposed to serious risk because of its large population and the high vulnerability of its buildings. Although the instrumentally recorded earthquakes discussed in this article cannot be classified as major events, they should not be discounted as insignificant. Considering the low seismicity, micro-earthquakes below the magnitude of a conventional seismic network can achieve would be used to estimate background information in the evaluation of earthquake hazards and risks.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.443-451
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• 2016

A Gyeongju earthquake in the magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale (the moment magnitude of 5.4), which was recorded as the strongest earthquake in Korea, occurred in September 12, 2016. Compared with the 2011 Virginia earthquake, the moment magnitude was slightly smaller and its duration was 3 seconds, much shorter than 10 seconds of the Virginia earthquake, resulting in relatively minor damage. But the two earthquakes are quite similar in terms of the overall scale, unexpectedness, and social situation. The North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, which is a nuclear power plant located at 18 km away from the epicenter of the Virginia earthquake, had no damage to nuclear reactors because the reactors were automatically shut down as the design basis earthquake value was exceeded. Ground accelerations of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake did not exceed the threshold value but the manual shutdown was carried out so that Wolsong Nuclear Power Site was not damaged. Damaged historic homestead house and masonry structures due to the Virginia earthquake have been repaired, reinforced, and rebuilt based on a long-term earthquake recovery project. Likewise, it will be necessary to carefully carry out an earthquake recovery planning program to improve overall seismic performance and to reconstruct the historic buildings and structures damaged as a result of the Gyeongju earthquake.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2015

It is important to accurately predict structural responses to external excitations such as typhoons and earthquakes when designing structures for serviceability. One of the key procedures to predict reliable vibration responses is to evaluate accurate structural dynamic properties using finite element (FE) models, which properly represent the realistic behavior of buildings. In the case of historic masonry buildings, structural damage could also be caused by ambient vibrations or impacts. Therefore, the preservation plans of historic buildings for low-level vibrations or impacts should be provided by analyzing structural damages within serviceability levels. For this purpose, it is required to provide FE model construction and response analysis methods verified with field measurement data. In this research, long-term field measurement was performed for a cathedral and its dynamic properties were evaluated using measured data. Then, the model was calibrated based on the measured dynamic properties and an overall construction method for the masonry cathedral was proposed. Using the measured accelerations, the vibrations of the belfry were analyzed using the calibrated FE model and finally, the FE model for the cathedral was verified by comparing the measured accelerations with the modeled results.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.639-658
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• 2017

Very limited studies have been accomplished concerning the historical structures around Harran area. Collected mortar samples from the historic structures in the area were tested to explore their mechanical, chemical and mineralogical properties. Mortar samples from three different points of each historical structure were taken and specified in accordance with the related standards taking into consideration their mechanical, chemical and mineralogical properties. By means of SEM-EDX the presence of organic fibres and calcite, quartz, plagioclase and muscovite minerals has been examined. Additionally, by means of XRF analysis, oxide ($SiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$, and $Fe_2O_3$) percentages of mortar ingredients have been specified, also. According to the test results obtained, it was confirmed that the mortars had densities ranging between $1.51-2.10g/cm^3$, porosity values ranging between 8.89-35.38% and compressive strengths ranging between 5.02-5.90 MPa. Specimen HU, which has the highest durability and lowest water absorption and porosity, was the mortar taken from the most intact building in the mosque complex. This result is most likely due to the very little fine aggregate content of HU. In contrast, HUC mortars with a small amount of fine particles and brick contents yielded slightly lower compressive strengths. The interesting point of this study is the mineralogical analysis results and especially the presence of ettringite in these historic mortars linked to the use of pozzolanic materials. Survival of these historic structures in Harran Area through centuries of use and, also, having been subjected to many earthquakes can probably be explained by these properties of the mortars.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.223-236
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• 2017

Seismic assessment and rehabilitation of Monumental Buildings constitute an important issue in many regions around the world to preserve cultural heritage. On the contrary, many recent earthquakes have demonstrated the high vulnerability of this type of structures. The high nonlinear masonry behaviour requires ad hoc refined finite element numerical models, whose complexity and computational costs are generally unsuitable for practical applications. For these reasons, several authors proposed simplified numerical strategies to be used in engineering practice. However, most of these alternative methods are oversimplified being based on the assumption of in-plane behaviour of masonry walls. Moreover, they cannot be used for modelling the monumental structures for which the interaction between plane and out-plane behaviour governs the structural response. Recently, an innovative discrete-modelling approach for the simulation of both in-plane and out of-plane response of masonry structures was proposed and applied to study several typologies of historic structures. In this paper the latter model is applied with reference to a real case study, and numerically compared with an advanced finite element modelling. The method is applied to the St.Venerio church in Reggiolo (Italy), damaged during the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake and numerically investigated in the literature.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.99-112
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• 2016

Since the preservation of monuments is very important to human societies, different methods are required to preserve historic structures. In this paper, 3D model of arch stone bridge at Pont Saint Martin, Aosta, Italy, was simulated by 1660 integrated separate stones using ABAQUS$^{(R)}$ software to investigate the seismic susceptibility of the bridge. The main objective of this research was to study a method of preservation of the historical stone bridge against possible earthquakes using FRP techniques. The nonlinear behavior model of materials used theory of plasticity based on Drucker-Prager yield criterion. Then, contact behavior between the block and mortar was modeled. Also, Seismosignal software was used to collect data related to 1976 Friuli Earthquake Italy, which constitutes a real seismic loading. The results show that, retrofitting of the arch stone bridge using FRP techniques decreased displacement of stones of spandrel walls, which prevents the collapse of stones.