• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.171-187
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• 2011

Rational scaling of design earthquake ground motions for tall buildings is essential for safer, risk-based design of tall buildings. This paper provides the structural designers with an insight for more rational scaling based on drift and input energy demands. Since a resonant sinusoidal motion can be an approximate critical excitation to elastic and inelastic structures under the constraint of acceleration or velocity power, a resonant sinusoidal motion with variable period and duration is used as an input wave of the near-field and far-field ground motions. This enables one to understand clearly the relation of the intensity normalization index of ground motion (maximum acceleration, maximum velocity, acceleration power, velocity power) with the response performance (peak interstory drift, total input energy). It is proved that, when the maximum ground velocity is adopted as the normalization index, the maximum interstory drift exhibits a stable property irrespective of the number of stories. It is further shown that, when the velocity power is adopted as the normalization index, the total input energy exhibits a stable property irrespective of the number of stories. It is finally concluded that the former property on peak drift can hold for the practical design response spectrum-compatible ground motions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.115-128
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• 2022

One common method to select input ground motions to predict dynamic behavior of structures subjected to seismic excitation requires spectral acceleration (S_a) match target mean response spectrum. However, dispersion of ground motions, which explicitly affects the structural response, is rarely discussed in this method. Generally, selecting ground motions matching target mean and variance has been utilized as an appropriate method to predict reliable seismic response. The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of target spectra variance of ground motions on structural seismic response. Two sets of ground motions with different target variances (zero variance and minimum variance larger than inherent variance of the target spectrum) are selected as input to two different structures. Structural responses at different heights are compared, in terms of peak, mean and dispersion. Results show that increase of target spectra variance tends to increase peak floor acceleration, peak deformation and dispersions of response of interest remarkably. To short-period structures, dispersion increase ratios of seismic response are close to that of S_a of input ground motions at the first period. To long-period structures, dispersions of floor acceleration and floor response spectra increase more significantly at the bottom, while dispersion increase ratios of IDR and deformation are close to that of S_a of input ground motions at the first period. This study could further provide useful information on selecting appropriate ground motion to predict seismic behavior of different types of structures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.4179-4188
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• 2021

This study identifies efficient earthquake intensity measures (IMs) for seismic performances and fragility evaluations of the reactor containment building (RCB) in the advanced power reactor 1400 (APR1400) nuclear power plant (NPP). The computational model of RCB is constructed using the beam-truss model (BTM) for nonlinear analyses. A total of 90 ground motion records and 20 different IMs are employed for numerical analyses. A series of nonlinear time-history analyses are performed to monitor maximum floor displacements and accelerations of RCB. Then, probabilistic seismic demand models of RCB are developed for each IM. Statistical parameters including coefficient of determination (R²), dispersion (i.e. standard deviation), practicality, and proficiency are calculated to recognize strongly correlated IMs with the seismic performance of the NPP structure. The numerical results show that the optimal IMs are spectral acceleration, spectral velocity, spectral displacement at the fundamental period, acceleration spectrum intensity, effective peak acceleration, peak ground acceleration, A95, and sustained maximum acceleration. Moreover, weakly related IMs to the seismic performance of RCB are peak ground displacement, root-mean-square of displacement, specific energy density, root-mean-square of velocity, peak ground velocity, Housner intensity, velocity spectrum intensity, and sustained maximum velocity. Finally, a set of fragility curves of RCB are developed for optimal IMs.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.425-434
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• 2016

This study investigates important parameters used to determine an effective peak ground acceleration (EPGA) based on the characteristics of response spectra of historical earthquakes occurred at Korean peninsula. EPGAs are very important since they are implemented in the Korean Building Code for the seismic design of new structures. Recently, the Gyeongju earthquakes with the largest magnitude in earthquakes measured at Korea took place and resulted in non-structural and structural damage, which their EPGAs should need to be evaluated. This paper first describes the basic concepts on EPGAs and the EPGAs of the Gyeongju earthquakes are then evaluated and compared according to epicentral distances, site classes and directions of seismic waves. The EPGAs are dependant on normalizing factors and ranges of period on response spectrum constructed with the Gyeongju earthquake records. Using the normalizing factors and the ranges of period determined based on the characteristics of domestic response spectra, this paper draw a conclusion that the EPGAs are estimated to be about 30 % of the measured peak ground accelerations (PGA).

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2014

In industrial facilities sites, the conventional method determining the earthquake magnitude (M) using earthquake ground-motion records is generally not applicable due to the poor quality of data. Therefore, a new methodology is proposed for determining the earthquake magnitude in real-time based on the amplitude measures of the ground-motion acceleration mostly from S-wave packets with the higher signal-to-ratios, given the Vs30 of the site. The amplitude measures include the bracketed cumulative parameters and peak ground acceleration (As). The cumulative parameter is either CAV (Cumulative Absolute Velocity) with 100 SPS (sampling per second) or BSPGA (Bracketed Summation of the PGAs) with 1 SPS. The arithmetic equations to determine the earthquake magnitude are derived from the CAV(BSPGA)-As-M relations. For the application to broad ranges of earthquake magnitude and distance, the multiple relations of CAV(BSPGA)-As-M are derived based on worldwide earthquake records and successfully used to determine the earthquake magnitude with a standard deviation of ${\pm}0.6M$.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.411-429
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• 2017

A Spectral Element Method for 3D seismic wave propagation simulation is derived based on the three-dimensional fluctuating elastic dynamic equation. Considering the 3D real terrain and the attenuation characteristics of the medium, the topographic effect of Wenchuan earthquake is simulated by using the Spectral Element Method (SEM) algorithm and the ASTER DEM model. Results show that the high PGA (peak ground acceleration) region was distributed along the peak and the slope side away from the epicenter in the epicenter area. The overall distribution direction of high PGA and high PGV (peak ground velocity) region is parallel to the direction of the seismogenic fault. In the epicenter of the earthquake, the ground motion is to some extent amplified under the influence of the terrain. The amplification effect of the terrain on PGA is complicated. It does not exactly lead to amplification of PGA at the ridge and the summit or attenuation of PGA in the valley.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.293-305
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• 2023

Three ground models are analyzed using a 1g shaking table and laminar shear box (LSB) to investigate the impact of the ground structure on seismic wave amplification during earthquakes. Multi-layer horizontal, embankment, and basin ground models are selected for this investigation, with each model being divided into dense and loose ground layers, Accelerometers are installed during the construction of each ground model to capture any seismic wave amplification owing th the propagation of an artificial seismic wave, sine wave sweep, and 10-Hz sine wave through a given ground model. The amplification of the tested seismic waves is analyzed using the observed peak ground acceleration and spectrum acceleration. The observed acceleration amplification in the multi-layer horizontal ground model is significantly higher the seismic waves that propagated across the dense ground-loose ground boundary compared with those that only propagated through the dense ground. Furthermore, the observed acceleration amplification gradually increases in the central part of the multi-layer embankment and basin models for the seismic waves that propagated across the dense ground-loose ground boundary.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.125-144
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• 2015

This paper presents the probabilistic seismic microzonation of densely populated Kolkata city, situated on the world's largest delta island with very soft alluvial soil deposit. At first probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Kolkata city was carried out at bedrock level and then ground motion amplification due to sedimentary deposit was computed using one dimensional (1D) wave propagation analysis SHAKE2000. Different maps like fundamental frequency, amplification at fundamental frequency, peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground displacement (PGD), maximum response spectral acceleration at different time period bands are developed for variety of end users, structural and geotechnical engineers, land use planners, emergency managers and awareness of general public. The probabilistically predicted PGA at bedrock level is 0.12 g for 50% exceedance in 50 years and maximum PGA at surface level it varies from 0.095 g to 0.18 g for same probability of exceedance. The scenario of simulated ground motion revealed that Kolkata city is very much prone to damage during earthquake.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1315-1330
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• 2016

This study investigates ground motion parameters and their damage potential for building type structures. It focuses on low and mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings that are important portion of the existing building stock under seismic risk in many countries. Correlations of 19 parameters of 466 earthquake records with nonlinear displacement demands of 1056 Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) systems are investigated. Properties of SDOF systems are established to represent RC building construction practice. The correlation of damage and ground motion characteristics is examined with respect to number of story and site classes. Equations for average nonlinear displacement demands of considered RC buildings are given for some of the ground motion parameters. Velocity related parameters are generally found to have better results than the acceleration, displacement and frequency related ones. Correlation of the parameters may be expected to decrease with increasing intensity of seismic event. Velocity Spectrum Intensity and Peak Ground Velocity have been found to have the highest correlation values for almost all site classes and number of story groups. Common parameter of Peak Ground Acceleration has lower correlation with damage when compared to them and some other parameters like Effective Design Acceleration and Characteristic Intensity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.21-33
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• 2020

Ground response analysis has been conducted for each borehole data in Pohang area, using 1D equivalent linear method program, to investigate the applicability of amplification factor to estimate peak ground acceleration. Earthquake motions for ground response analysis were prepared by matching response spectrums for return period of 500, 1000, and 2400 years suggested by seismic design code (MOIS, 2017). Ground survey data were acquired from Geotechnical Information DB System. It has been confirmed that response spectrum obtained from ground response analysis showed good agreement with those from seismic design code irrespective of ground classification. However, PGA (Peak Ground Accelerations) of ground response analysis did not coincide with PGA calculated using amplification factor suggested by seismic design code.