• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.329-348
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• 2013

This study aims at observing the coupling behaviours between suspended ceilings and partition walls in terms of their global seismic performance using full-scale shake table tests. The suspended ceilings with planar dimensions of $6.0m{\times}3.6m$ were tested with two types of panels: acoustic lay-in and metal clip-on panels. They were further categorized as seismic-braced, seismic-unbraced, and non-seismic installations. Also, two configurations of 2.7 m high partition wall specimens, with C-shape and I-shape in the plane layouts, were tested. In total, seven ceiling-partition-coupling (CPC) specimens were tested utilizing a unidirectional seismic simulator. The test results indicate that the damage patterns of the tested CPC systems included failure of the ceiling grids, shearing-off of the wall top railing, and, most destructively, numerous partial detachments and falling of the ceiling panels. The loss of panels was mostly concentrated near the center of the tested partition wall. The testing results also confirmed that the failure mode of the non-seismic CPC systems was brittle: The whole system would collapse suddenly all at once when the magnitude of the inputs hit the capacity threshold, rather than displaying progressive damage. Overall, the seismic capacity of the unbraced and braced CPC systems could be up to 1.23 g and 2.67 g, respectively; these accelerations were both achieved at the base of the partition wall. Nonetheless, for practical applications, it is noteworthy that the three-dimensional nature of seismic excitations and the size effect of the ceiling area are parameters that exacerbate the CPC's seismic response so that their actual capacity may be dramatically decreased, leading to important losses even in moderate seismic events.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.337-352
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• 2013

Seismic performance of critical facilities has been focused on the structural components over the past decade. However, most earthquake damages were observed to the nonstructural components during and after the earthquakes. The primary objective of this research was to develop the seismic fragility of the piping system incorporating the nonlinear Tee-joint finite element model in the full scale piping configuration installed in critical facilities. The procedure for evaluating fragility curves corresponding to the first damage state was considered the effects of the top floor acceleration sensitivities for 5, 10, 15, and 20 story linear RC and steel building systems subjected to 22 selected ground motions as a function of ground motion uncertainties. The result of this study revealed that the conditional probability of failure of the piping system on the top floor in critical facilities did not increase with increased level of story height and in fact, story level in buildings can tune the fragilities between the building and the piping system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.4
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• pp.369-382
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• 2024

The earthquake loss assessment framework of ductile reinforced concrete (or RC) frame using component-performance -based methodology was studied in this paper. The elasto-plastic rotation angle was used as the damage indicator of structural component, and the damage-to-loss model was proposed on the basis of the deformation indicator of structural component. Dynamic instability during incremental dynamic analysis was taken as collapse criterion, and column failure was taken as criterion that structure has to be demolished. Expected earthquake losses of low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise RC frames were discussed. The expected earthquake loss encompassed collapse loss, demolition loss and repair loss. Furthermore, component groups of RC frame were divided into structural components, nonstructural components and rugged components. The results indicate that ductile RC frame is more likely to be demolished than collapse, especially in low-rise and mid-rise RC frames. Furthermore, the less collapse margin ratio the structure has, the more demolition probability the structure will suffer under rare earthquake. The demolition share of total earthquake loss might be more prominent than repair share and collapse share in ductile RC frame.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.450-457
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• 2018

Purpose: The evaluation of seismic performance of critical structures has been emerging a key issue in Korea, since a magnitude 5.8 earthquake, the worst in Koran history, struck Gyeongju, southern area in Korea on september 12th, 2016. In particular, the catastrophic failure of nonstructural components such as sprinkler piping systems can cause significant economic loss or loss of life during and after an earthquake. The nonstructural components can be more fragile than structural components in seismic behavior. Method: This study presents the seismic performance evaluation of fire protection piping system, using coupled building-piping system installed with Triple Friction Pendulum Bearings (TPBs). Kobe (Japan), Kocaeli (Turkey), and GyeongJu (Korea) were selected to consider the uncertainty of ground motions in this study. Result: In the simulation results, it was observed that the reduction of maximum displacements of the piping system with the TPBs' system was significant: Kobe, Kocaeli, and Gyeongju cases were 49%, 14.4% and 21.5%, respectively. Conclusion: Therefore, using seismically isolated system in a building-piping system can be more effective to reduce the seismic risk than a normally installed building-piping systems without TPBs in strong earthquakes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1651-1658
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• 2020

Since Zika virus (ZIKV) was first detected in Uganda in 1947, serious outbreaks have occurred globally in Yap Island, French Polynesia and Brazil. Even though the number of infections and spread of ZIKV have risen sharply, the pathogenesis and replication mechanisms of ZIKV have not been well studied. ZIKV, a recently highlighted Flavivirus, is a mosquito-borne emerging virus causing microcephaly and the Guillain-Barre syndrome in fetuses and adults, respectively. ZIKV polyprotein consists of three structural proteins named C, prM and E and seven nonstructural proteins named NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, and NS5 in an 11-kb single-stranded positive sense RNA genome. The function of individual ZIKV genes on the host innate immune response has barely been studied. In this study, we investigated the modulations of the NF-κB promoter activity induced by the MDA5/RIG-I signaling pathway. According to our results, two nonstructural proteins, NS2A and NS4A, dramatically suppressed the NF-κB promoter activity by inhibiting signaling factors involved in the MDA5/RIG-I signaling pathway. Interestingly, NS2A suppressed all components of MDA5/RIG-I signaling pathway, but NS4A inhibited most signaling molecules, except IKKε and IRF3-5D. In addition, both NS2A and NS4A downregulated MDA5-induced NF-κB promoter activity in a dosedependent manner. Taken together, our results suggest that NS2A and NS4A signifcantly antagonize MDA5/RIG-I-mediated NF-κB production, and these proteins seem to be controlled by different mechanisms. This study could help understand the mechanisms of how ZIKV controls innate immune responses and may also assist in the development of ZIKV-specific therapeutics.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.563-576
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• 2015

Over the past few decades, seismic retrofitting of structural systems has been significantly improved by the adoption of various methods such as FRP composite wraps, base isolation systems, and passive/active damper control systems. In parallel with this trend, probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) for structural and nonstructural components has become necessary for risk mitigation and the achievement of reliable designs in performance-based earthquake engineering. The primary objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect on piping fragility at T-joints due to seismic retrofitting of structural systems with passive energy-dissipation devices (i.e., linear viscous dampers). Three mid-rise building types were considered: without any seismic retrofitting; with distributed damper systems; with optimal placement of dampers. The results showed that the probability of piping system failure was considerably reduced in a Multi Degree of Freedom (MDOF) building retrofitted with optimal passive damper systems at lower floor levels. This effect of damper systems on piping fragility became insignificant as the floor level increased.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1069-1089
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• 2015

This paper presents average numerical results of 2128 nonlinear dynamic finite element (FE) analyses of lightweight acceleration-sensitive non-structural components (NSCs) attached to the floors of one-bay three-storey reinforced concrete (RC) primary structures (P-structures) with different eccentricity ratios. The investigated parameters include the NSC to P-structure vibration period ratio, peak ground acceleration, P-structure eccentricity ratio, and NSC damping ratio. Appropriate constitutive relationships were used to model the behaviour of the RC P-structures. The NSCs were modelled as vertical cantilevers fixed at their bases with masses on the free ends and varying lengths so as to match the vibration periods of the P-structures. Full dynamic interaction was considered between the NSCs and P-structures. A set of seven natural bi-directional ground motions were used to evaluate the seismic response of the NSCs. The numerical results show that the acceleration response of the NSCs depends on the investigated parameters. The accelerations of the NSCs attached to the flexible sides of the P-structures increased with the increase in peak ground acceleration and P-structure eccentricity ratio but decreased with the increase in NSC damping ratio. Comparison between the FE results and Eurocode 8 (EC8) predictions suggests that, under tuned conditions, EC8 provisions underestimate the seismic response of the NSCs mounted on the flexible sides of the plan-irregular RC P-structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2020

Floor acceleration plays a major role in the seismic design of nonstructural components and equipment supported by structures. Large floor acceleration may cause structural damage to or even collapse of buildings. For precision instruments in high-tech factories, even small floor accelerations can cause considerable damage in this study. Six P-wave parameters, namely the peak measurement of acceleration, peak measurement of velocity, peak measurement of displacement, effective predominant period, integral of squared velocity, and cumulative absolute velocity, were estimated from the first 3 s of a vertical ground acceleration time history. Subsequently, a new predictive algorithm was developed, which utilizes the aforementioned parameters with the floor height and fundamental period of the structure as the new inputs of a support vector regression model. Representative earthquakes, which were recorded by the Structure Strong Earthquake Monitoring System of the Central Weather Bureau in Taiwan from 1992 to 2016, were used to construct the support vector regression model for predicting the peak floor acceleration (PFA) of each floor. The results indicated that the accuracy of the predicted PFA, which was defined as a PFA within a one-level difference from the measured PFA on Taiwan's seismic intensity scale, was 96.96%. The proposed system can be integrated into the existing earthquake early warning system to provide complete protection to life and the economy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.3512-3527
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• 2024

Seismic quantification of nonstructural components like electrical cabinets is essential to ensure the uninterrupted operation of nuclear facilities during earthquake events. This process requires experimental tests, which can be expensive, time-consuming, and limited by safety concerns and precision. As an alternative to that, numerical simulations should be done in such a way that they are capable of capturing the global dynamic behavior with minimum computational efforts. However, in the case of complex interconnected cabinets, the simplification of numerical models often poses difficulties in illustrating the real-time behavior of combined cabinet systems. On the other hand, detailed three-dimensional (3D) numerical models require lengthy time and sophisticated computational setup, indicating their expensive computational efforts. To resolve this issue, a simplified and efficient 3D modeling approach has been proposed in this study. The accuracy of the results from the new model showed an excellent match with that obtained from the responses of the experimental test. After the validation and observation of the numerical efficiency, a practical application is implemented by considering the impacts of earthquake frequency contents on the behavior of cabinet systems. From the outcomes, it is evident that this proposed modeling methodology has the potential to replace the complex combined nuclear cabinet models for earthquake evaluation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.195-211
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• 2020

Among anti-seismic technologies, base isolation is a very effective means of mitigating damage to structural and nonstructural components, such as equipment. However, most seismic isolation systems are designed for mitigating only horizontal seismic responses because the realization of a vertical isolation system (VIS) is difficult. The difficulty is primarily due to conflicting isolation stiffness demands in the static and dynamic states for a VIS, which requires sufficient rigidity to support the self-weight of the isolated object in the static state, but sufficient flexibility to lengthen the isolation period and uncouple the ground motion in the dynamic state. To overcome this problem, a semi-active VIS, called the piezoelectric inertia-type vertical isolation system (PIVIS), is proposed in this study. PIVIS is composed of a piezoelectric friction damper (PFD) and a leverage mechanism with a counterweight. The counterweight provides an uplifting force in the static state and an extra inertial force in the dynamic state; therefore, the effective vertical stiffness of PIVIS is higher in the static state and lower in the dynamic state. The PFD provides a controllable friction force for PIVIS to further prevent its excessive displacement. For experimental verification, a shaking table test was conducted on a prototype PIVIS controlled by a simple controller. The experimental results well agree with the theoretical results. To further investigate the isolation performance of PIVIS, the seismic responses of PIVIS were simulated numerically by considering 14 vertical ground motions with different characteristics. The responses of PIVIS were compared with those of a traditional VIS and a passive system (PIVIS without control). The numerical results demonstrate that compared with the traditional and passive systems, PIVIS can effectively suppress isolation displacement in all kinds of earthquake with various peak ground accelerations and frequency content while maintaining its isolation efficiency. The proposed system is particularly effective for near-fault earthquakes with long-period components, for which it prevents resonant-like motion.