• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.453-460
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• 2016

The Gyeong-Ju earthquake in the magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scaleoccurred in September 12, 2016. Because there are many nuclear power plants (NPP) near the epicenter of the Gyeong-Ju earthquake, the seismic stability of nuclear power plants is becoming a social problem. In order to evaluate the safety of seismically isolated NPP, the seismic response of a NPP subjected to the Gyeong-Ju earthquake was compared with those of 30 sets of artificial earthquakes corresponding to the nuclear standard design spectrum (NSDS). A 2-node model and a simple beam-stick model were used for the seismic analysis of seismically isolated NPP structures. Using 2-node model, the effect of internal temperature rise, decrease of shear stiffness, increase of lateral displacement and decrease of vertical stiffness according to nonlinear behavior of lead-rubber bearing (LRB) were evaluated. The displacement response, the acceleration response, and the shear force response of the seismically isolated nuclear containment structure were evaluated using the simple beam-stick model. It can be observed that the seismic responses of the isolated nuclear structure subjected to Gyeong-Ju earthquake is significantly less than those to the artificial earthquakes corresponding to NSDS.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.15-23
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• 2009

An experimental study was performed to evaluate seismic reduction performance and the applicability of 2-dimensional floor isolation system to the main control room of a nuclear power plant. A lead-rubber bearing (LRB) and a friction pendulum system (FPS) were designed and fabricated for a 2-dimensional floor isolation system. A partial experimental model of a main control room with the LRB and FPS was tested using a shaking table. The experimental model consisted of a control panel, a 2.5m${\times}$2.5m access floor, and four LRB and FPS. The artificial time histories based on the horizontal floor response spectrums (OBE, SSE) of the main control room were used as earthquake input signals. Compared to the non-isolated system, the seismic response of experimental models using a 2-dimensional floor isolation system showed considerable seismic reduction performance against an earthquake.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2019

In order to increase the seismic safety of nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, a technique to reduce the seismic load transmitted to the NPP structure by using a seismic isolation device such as a lead-rubber bearing has recently been actively researched. In seismic design of NPP structures, three directional (two horizontal and one vertical directions) artificial synthetic earthquakes (G0 group) corresponding to the standard design spectrum are generally used. In this study, seismic analysis was performed by using three directional artificial synthetic earthquakes (M0 group) corresponding to the maximum-minimum spectrum reflecting uncertainty of incident direction of earthquake load. The design basis earthquake (DBE) and the beyond design basis earthquakes (BDBEs are equal to 150%, 167%, and 200% DBE) of G0 and M0 earthquake groups were respectively generated for 30 sets and used for the seismic analysis. The purpose of this study is to compare seismic responses and seismic fragility curves of seismically isolated NPP structures subjected to DBE and BDBE. From the seismic fragility curves, the probability of failure of the seismic isolation system when the peak ground acceleration (PGA) is 0.5 g is about 5% for the M0 earthquake group and about 3% for the G0 earthquake group.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.391-398
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• 2000

To evaluate the seismic performance of a base isolated building accurate analytical model should be selected. The analytical results such as reduced accelerations member forces and relative displacements of the superstructure of the base isolated building are only meaningful when the analytical model is close enough to the real structure. Real size one bay-two story steel frame and two kinds of seismic isolators(laminated elastomeric bearing and lead-rubber bearing) are designed. manufactured and constructed in the laboratory. Free vibration tests using fuse bars were conducted to evaluate the change of dynamic characteristics(period and damping) before and after base isolation of the steel frame. The experimental results of free vibration tests were also used as a bench mark for adjusting the selected analytical modeling to real base isolated steel frame.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.288-294
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• 2003

Increasing the volume of traffic on the roads causes social and economical problems such as increasing air-pollution and distribution cost. Prefabricated light weight bridge becomes a possible solution for these problems in the urban area where it is difficult to construct new one or expend the existing road. There are some merits in this kind of bridge. First, the design live and dead loads are minimized by allowing only passenger cars. Second employing prefabrication construction scheme reduces the construction time. Third, there is no need to buy land if the elevation road is placed on the top of existing one. In seismic design of bridges, base isolation has been an effective solution when the bridge has stiff piers and a heavy superstructure. The prefabricated light weight bridge has different dynamic characteristics from the ordinary bridges. In this paper, the applicability of base isolators such as lead rubber bearing and elastomeric bearing, to prefabricated light weight bridge is examined.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.665-677
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• 2019

This study utilizes large-scale shake table test to investigate the seismic performance of an isolated bridge with lead rubber bearings crossing an active fault. Two transverse restraining systems with and without shear keys are tested by applying spatially varying ground motions. It is shown that the near-fault span exhibits larger bearing displacement than the crossing-fault span. Bridge piers away from the fault rupture are more vulnerable than those adjacent to the fault rupture by attracting more seismic demand. It is also verified that the shear keys are effective in restraining the bearing displacement on the near-fault span, particularly under the large permanent ground displacement.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.51-63
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• 2002

This paper presents a hybrid control strategy for seismic protection of a benchmark cable-stayed bridge, which is provided as a testbed structure for the development of strategies for the control of cable-stayed bridges. This benchmark problem considers the cable-stayed bridge that is scheduled for completion in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA in 2003. Seismic considerations were strongly considered in the design of this bridge due to the location of the bridge in the New Madrid seismic zone and its critical role as a principal crossing of the Mississippi river. Based on detailed drawings of this cable-stayed bridge, a three-dimensional linearlized evaluation model has been developed to represent the complex behavior of the bridge. A set of eighteen evaluation criteria has been developed to evaluate the capabilities of each control strategy. In this study, a hybrid control system is composed of a passive control system to reduce the earthquake-induced forces in the structure and an active control system to further reduce the bridge responses, especially deck displacements. Conventional base isolation devices such as lead rubber bearings are used for the passive control design and Bouc-Wen model is used to simulate the nonlinear behavior of these devices For the active control design, ideal hydraulic actuators are used and on $H_2$/LQG control algorithm is adopted. Numerical simulation results show that the performance of the proposed hybrid control strategy is quite effective compared to that of the passive control strategy and slightly better than that of the active control strategy. The hybrid control method is also more reliable than the fully active control method due to the passive control part. Therefore, the proposed hybrid control strategy can effectively be used to seismically excited cable-stayed bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.523-532
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• 2019

Different types of gas reservoir such as Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) are among the strategic infrastructures, and have great importance for any government or their private owners. To keep the tank and its contents safe during earthquakes especially if the contents are of hazardous or flammable materials; using seismic protection systems such as base isolator can be considered as an effective solution. However, the major deficiency of this system can be the large deformation in the isolation level which may lead to the failure of bearing system. In this paper, as a solution, the efficacy of an optimally designed combined vibration control system, the combined laminated rubber isolator and rotational friction damper, is investigated to evaluate the enhancement of an existing metal tank response under both far- and near-field earthquakes. Responses like impulsive and convective accelerations, base shear, and sloshing height are studied herein. The probabilistic framework is used to consider the uncertainties in the structural modeling, as well as record-to-record variability. Due to the high calculation cost of probabilistic methods, a simplified structural model is used. By using the Mont-Carlo simulation approach, it is revealed that this combined isolation system is a highly reliable system which provides considerable enhancement in the performance of reservoir, not only leads to the reduction of probability of catastrophic failure of the tank but also decrease the reservoir damage during the earthquake. Moreover, the relative displacement of the isolation level is controlled very well by this combined system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.185-196
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• 2019

One of the shortcomings of seismic bridge design codes is the lack of clarity in defining the role of different seismic isolation systems with linear or nonlinear behavior in terms of R-factor. For example, based on AASHTO guide specifications for seismic isolation design, R-factor for all substructure elements of isolated bridges should be half of those expressed in the AASHTO standard specifications for highway bridges (i.e., R=3 for single columns and R=5 for multiple column bent) but not less than 1.50. However, no distinction is made between two commonly used types of seismic isolation devices, i.e., elastomeric rubber bearing (ERB) with linear behavior, and lead rubber bearing (LRB) with nonlinear behavior. In this paper, five existing bridges located in Iran with two types of deck-pier connection including ERB and LRB isolators, and two bridge models with monolithic deck-pier connection are developed and their R-factor values are assessed based on the Uang's method. The average R-factors for the bridges with ERB isolators are calculated as 3.89 and 4.91 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively, which are not in consonance with the AASHTO guide specifications for seismic isolation design (i.e., R=3/2=1.5 for the longitudinal direction and R=5/2=2.5 for the transverse direction). This is a clear indicator that the code-prescribed R-factors are conservative for typical bridges with ERB isolators. Also for the bridges with LRB isolators, the average computed R-factors equal 1.652 and 2.232 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively, which are in a good agreement with the code-specified R-factor values. Moreover, in the bridges with monolithic deck-pier connection, the average R-factor in the longitudinal direction is obtained as 2.92 which is close to the specified R-factor in the bridge design codes (i.e., 3), and in the transverse direction is obtained as 2.41 which is about half of the corresponding R-factor value in the specifications (i.e., 5).

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.1025-1037
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• 2015

Flexible base isolation bearings that separate superstructure from ground have been widely used in the construction field because they make a significant contribution to increasing the fundamental period of the structure, thereby decreasing response acceleration transmitted into the superstructure. However, the established bearing devices installed to uphold the whole building give rise to some problems involved with failure and collapse due to lack of the capacity as modern structures are getting more massive and higher. Therefore, this study suggests new isolation bearings assembled with additional restrainers enabled to reinforcing and recentering, and then evaluates their performance to withstand the seismic load. The superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) bars are installed into the conventional lead-rubber bearing (LRB) devices in order to provide recentering forces. These new systems are modeled as component spring models for the purpose of conducting nonlinear dynamic analyses with near fault ground motion data. The LRB devices with steel bars are also designed and analyzed to compare their responses with those of new systems. After numerical analyses, ultimate strength, maximum displacement, permanent deformation, and recentering ratio are compared to each model with an aim to investigate which base isolation models are superior. It can be shown that LRB models with superelastic SMA bars are superior to other models compared to each other in terms of seismic resistance and recentering effect.