• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.289-304
• /
• 2022

During strong ground motions, adjacent structures with insufficient separation distances collide with each other causing considerable architectural and structural damage or collapse of the whole structure. Generally, existing design procedures for determining the separation distance between adjacent buildings subjected to structural pounding are based on approximations of the buildings' peak relative displacement. These procedures are based on unknown safety levels. This paper attempts to evaluate the influence of foundation flexibility on the structural seismic response by considering the variability in the system and uncertainties in the ground motion characteristics through comprehensive numerical simulations. Actually, the aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of foundation flexibility on probabilistic evaluation of structural pounding. A Hertz-damp pounding force model has been considered in order to effectively capture impact forces during collisions. In total, 5.25 million time-history analyses were performed over the adopted models using an ensemble of 25 ground motions as seismic input within OpenSees software. The results of the study indicate that the soil-structure interaction significantly influences the pounding-involved responses of adjacent structures during earthquakes and generally increases the pounding probability.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 2011

Extensive computer simulations to account for the randomness in the process of seismic demand estimation have been a serious obstacle to the adoption of probabilistic performance assessments for the decision of applying seismic intervention schemes. In this study, a method for rapid fragility assessments based on a response database and the fragility contour method are presented. By the comparison of response contours in different formats, it is shown that representing maximum responses in ductility demand is better for the investigation of the effect of structural parameter changes on seismic demands than representations in absolute values. The presented fragility contour enables designers to practically investigate the probabilistic performance level of every possible retrofit option in a convenient manner using visualized data sets. This example demonstrates the extreme efficiency of the proposed approach in performing fragility assessments and successful application to the seismic retrofit strategies based on limit state probabilities.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.363-372
• /
• 2010

Accurate peak response estimation of a seismically excited structure with frictional damping system (FDS) is very difficult since the structure with FDS shows nonlinear behavior dependent on the structural period, loading characteristics, and relative magnitude between the frictional force and the excitation load. Previous studies have estimated the peak response of the structure with FDS by replacing a nonlinear system with an equivalent linear one or by employing the response spectrum obtained based on nonlinear time history and statistical analysis. In case that earthquake excitation is defined probabilistically, corresponding response of the structure with FDS becomes to have probabilistic distribution. In this study, nonlinear time history analyses were performed for the structure with FDS subjected to artificial earthquake excitation generated using Kanai-Tajimi filter. An equation for the probability density function (PDF) of the displacement response is proposed by adapting the PDF of the normal distribution. Coefficients of the proposed PDF are obtained by regression of the statistical distribution of the time history responses. Finally, the correlation between the resulting PDFs and statistical response distribution is investigated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.279-295
• /
• 2011

This paper develops a probabilistic methodology for the seismic reliability analysis of structures with random properties. The earthquake loading is assumed to be described in terms of response spectra. The proposed methodology takes advantage of the response spectra and thus does not require explicit dynamic analysis of the actual structure. Uncertainties in the structural properties (e.g. member cross-sections, modulus of elasticity, member strengths, mass and damping) as well as in the seismic load (due to uncertainty associated with the earthquake load specification) are considered. The structural reliability is estimated by determining the failure probability or the reliability index associated with a performance function that defines safe and unsafe domains. The structural failure is estimated using a performance function that evaluates whether the maximum displacement has been exceeded. Numerical illustrations of reliability analysis of elastic and elastic-plastic single-story frame structures are presented first. The extension of the proposed method to elastic multi-degree-of-freedom uncertain structures is also studied and a solved example is provided.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.5-20
• /
• 1990

In the seismic analysis of structures, where the dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI) is considred, earthquake input motions as well as dynamic soil properties are random in nature. To take into account the random nature of both the input motions and the dynamic soil properties systematically, a probabilistic analysis of the DSSI subjected to seismic loading is proposed in this paper, The complex response method formulized by the elastic half space theory, the random vibration theory, and the Rosenblueth's two-point estimate method are combined for the proposed probabilistic analysis. The conclusions drawn from this study are as follows ' 1) The uncertainty bands of the earthquake input motions proposed by Kanai-Tajimi as well as those of the dynamic properties are large the coefecients of variation of those parameters tinge from 0.4 to 0.6. 2) The uncertainties of the dynamic soil properties are more sensitive to the structural responses than those of the input motion parameters. 3) The effect of correlations between the input motion parameters and the dynamic soil properties is negligible.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.289-297
• /
• 2017

This paper presents seismic performance and reliability evaluation on steel-timber hybrid shear wall systems composed of steel moment resisting frames and infill light frame wood shear walls. Based on experimental observations, damage assessment was conducted to determine the appropriate damage-related performance objectives for the hybrid shear wall systems. Incremental time-history dynamic analyses were conducted to establish a database of seismic responses for the hybrid systems with various structural configurations. The associated reliability indices and failure probabilities were calculated by two reliability methods (i.e., fragility analysis and response surface method). Both methods yielded similar estimations of failure probabilities. This study indicated the greatly improved seismic performance of the steel-timber hybrid shear wall systems with stronger infill wood shear walls. From a probabilistic perspective, the presented results give some insights on quantifying the seismic performance of the hybrid system under different seismic hazard levels. The reliability-based approaches also serve as efficient tools to assess the performance-based seismic design methodology and calibration of relative code provisions for the proposed steel-timber hybrid shear wall systems.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.10 no.1 s.47
• /
• pp.63-74
• /
• 2006

The seismic fragility analysis method has been used as a quantitative seismic safety evaluation method for the NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) structures and equipments. The seismic fragility analysis gives a realistic seismic capacity excluding the convertism included in the design stage. The conservatism is considered as the probabilistic parameters related to the response and capacity in the seismic fragility analysis. In this study, the displacement based seismic fragility analysis method was proposed based on the nonlinear dynamic analysis results. In this study, the seismic safety of the prestressed concrete containment building of KSNP(Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant) was evaluated for the scenario earthquakes, neat-fault, far-fault, design earthquake and probability based scenario earthquake, which can be occurred in the NPP sites.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.681-697
• /
• 2015

Iran as one of the countries located on the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt has recently experienced a few number of catastrophic earthquakes. A well-known index of how buildings are affected by earthquakes is through assessment of probable Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) and structures' response spectra. In this research, active faults around Kerman and Birjand, two major cities in eastern parts of Iran, have been considered. Seismic catalogues are gathered to categorize effects of surrounding faults on seismicity of the region. These catalogues were further refined with respect to time and space based on Knopoff-Gardner algorithm in order to increase statistical independency of events. Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) has been estimated for each of cities regarding 50, 100, 200 and 500 years of structures' effective life-span. These results subsequently have been compared with Deterministic Seismic Hazard Analysis (DSHA). It has been observed that DSHA not necessarily suggests upper bound of PSHA results. Furthermore, based on spectral Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs), Uniform Hazard Spectra (UHS) and spectral acceleration were provided for 2% and 10% levels of probability of exceedance. The results show that increasing source-to-site distance leads to spectral acceleration reduction regarding each fault. In addition, the spectral acceleration rate of variation would increase if the source-to-site distance decreases.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.1-15
• /
• 2006

The seismic safety of reinforced concrete containment building can be evaluated by probabilistic analysis considering randomness of earthquake, which is more rational than deterministic analysis. In the safety assessment of earthquake-resistant structures by the deterministic theory, it is not easy to consider the effects of random variables but the reliability theory and random vibration theory are useful to assess the seismic safety with considering random effects. The reliability assessment of reinforced concrete containment building subjected to earthquake load includes the structural analysis considering random variables such as load, resistance and analysis method, the definition of limit states and the reliability analysis. The reliability analysis procedure requires much time and labor and also needs to get the high confidence in results. In this study, random vibration analysis of containment building is performed with random variables as earthquake load, concrete compressive strength, modal damping ratio. The seismic responses of critical elements of structure are approximated at the most probable failure point by the response surface method. The response surface method helps to figure out the quantitative characteristics of structural response variability. And the limit state is defined as the failure surface of concrete under multi-axial stress, finally the limit state probability of failure can be obtained simply by first-order second moment method. The reliability analysis for the multiaxial strength limit state and the uniaxial strength limit state is performed and the results are compared with each other. This study concludes that the multiaxial failure criterion is a likely limit state to predict concrete failure strength under combined state of stresses and the reliability analysis results are compatible with the fact that the maximum compressive strength of concrete under biaxial compression state increases.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.32 no.11
• /
• pp.31-42
• /
• 2016

Usually the seismic stability analysis of slope uses the pseudostatic analysis considering the inertial force by the earthquake as a static load. Geostructures such as slope include the uncertainty of soil properties. Therefore, it is necessary to consider probabilistic method for stability analysis. In this study, the probabilistic stability analysis of slope considering the uncertainty of soil properties has been performed. The fragility curve that represents the probability of exceeding limit state of slope as a function of the ground motion has been established. The Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) has been implemented to perform the probabilistic stability analysis of slope with pseudostatic analysis. A procedure to develop the fragility curve by the pseudostatic horizontal acceleration has been presented by calculating the probability of failure based on the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based response surface technique that reduces the required time of MCS. The results showed that the proposed method can get the fragility curve that is similar to the direct MCS-based fragility curve, and can be efficiently used to reduce the analysis time.