• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.67-80
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• 2014

The thickness of permafrost in Eastern Siberia is from 200 to 500 meters. The seasonally frozen layer can vary from 0 to 4m depending on ground temperature and its location. The shear wave velocity varies from 80m/s in summer to 1500m/s in winter depending on soil type. When melted, large impedence will occur due to the difference between the shear wave velocity of seasonally frozen soil and that of permafrost layer. Large displacement may occur at the boundary of the melted and the frozen layer, and this phenomenon should be considered in a seismic design. In this research, one-dimensional equivalent linear analyses were performed to investigate the effects of the seasonally frozen layer on ground amplification characteristics. Soil profiles of Yakutsk and Chara in Eastern Siberia were selected from geotechnical reports. 20 recorded ground motions were used to evaluate the effect of input motions. As the thickness of seasonally frozen layer and the difference in the shear wave velocity increases, the amplification is shown to increase. Peat, very soft organic soil widely distributed throughout Eastern Siberia, is shown to cause significant ground motion amplification. It is therefore recommended to account for its influence on propagated motion.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.594-610
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• 2023

The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) has been widely applied to evaluate ground characteristics such as site response and thickness of the soft sedimentary layer on top of the bedrock via dominant frequencies and amplification factors of microtremors. Eight seismic stations were selected to investigate the HVSR results at the surface and at varying depths, and their variations due to wind speeds. These stations are equipped with seismic sensors on the surface and downhole(s) at depths. The borehole data analysis reveals that the geological condition at burial depth influences the HVSR results. Their dominant frequencies indicate the entire thickness of the soft layer, not the thickness to the bottom or top of the soft sedimentary layer from the seismometer burial depth. Analysis of the background noise observed at the surface showed that the resonance frequency estimation varied with wind speed changes. In the studied cases, the background noise observed in the sedimentary layer at depths of 20 to 66 meters yielded stable and consistent resonance frequency estimation regardless of wind speed fluctuations. The results of the seismic sensors buried deeper than 100 meters are unstable. The result indicates that the background noise from the buried seismometer at shallow depths (~0.3 m) under light wind conditions (wind speeds less than 3 m/s) is sufficient to achieve the purpose of the HVSR analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.511-519
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• 2019

The concrete gravity dam is one of the most important parts of the nation's infrastructure. Besides the benefits, the dam also has some potentially catastrophic disasters related to the life of citizens directly. During the lifetime of service, some degradations in a dam may occur as consequences of operating conditions, environmental aspects and deterioration in materials from natural causes, especially from dynamic loads. Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV) plays a key role to assess the operational condition of a structure under seismic hazard. In previous researches, CAV is normally used in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) fields, but there are no particular criteria or studies that have been made on dam structure. This paper presents a method to calculate the limitation of CAV for the Bohyeonsan Dam in Korea, where the critical Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) is estimated from twelve sets of selected earthquakes based on High Confidence of Low Probability of Failure (HCLPF). HCLPF point denotes 5% damage probability with 95% confidence level in the fragility curve, and the corresponding PGA expresses the crucial acceleration of this dam. For determining the status of the dam, a 2D finite element model is simulated by ABAQUS. At first, the dam's parameters are optimized by the Minitab tool using the method of Central Composite Design (CCD) for increasing model reliability. Then the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is used for updating the model and the optimization is implemented from the selected model parameters. Finally, the recorded response of the concrete gravity dam is compared against the results obtained from solving the numerical model for identifying the physical condition of the structure.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4C
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• pp.109-116
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• 2011

In this study, dynamic response of a vertical shaft subjected to seismic loads was evaluated by three-dimensional Finite Element (FE) approach. The emphasis was on quantifying the ground conditions, input motions and direction of motions. A series of parametric analyses were carried out. From the results of FE analysis, more than 1.7 times increase in shear force and bending moment is obtained when the stiff layer was thinker than the soft layer. And all of the maximum values were occurred near the interface between the soil layers. The dynamic behavior of vertical shaft was significantly influenced by the different frequencies of the input motion, and normalized acceleration of surrounding soil was 3 times larger than vertical shaft.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.23-35
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• 2015

Nonlinear soil behavior before failure under dynamic loading is often implemented in a numerical analysis code by a mathematical fitting function model with Masing's rule. However, the model may show different behavior with an experimental results obtained from laboratory test in damping ratio corresponding secant shear modulus for a certain shear strain rage. The difference may come from an unique soil characteristics which is unable to implement by using the existing mathematical fitting model. As of now, several fitting models have been suggested to overcome the difference between model and real soil behavior but consequence of the difference in dynamic analysis is not reviewed yet. In this paper, the effect of the difference on site response was examined through nonlinear response history analysis. The analysis was verified and calibrated with well defined dynamic geotechnical centrifuge test. Site response analyses were performed with three mathematical fitting function models and compared with the centrifuge test results in prototype scale. The errors on peak ground acceleration between analysis and experiment getting increased as increasing the intensity of the input motion. In practical point of view, the analysis results of accuracy with the fitting model is not significant in low to mid input motion intensity.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.35-42
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• 2012

We propose a probabilistic method to evaluate the uniform hazard spectra (UHS) of the soil of nuclear power plant(NPP) sites corresponding to that of a bedrock site. To do this, amplification factors on the surface of soil sites were estimated through site response analysis while considering the uncertainty in the earthquake ground motion and soil deposit characteristics. The amplification factors were calculated by regression analysis with spectral acceleration because these two factors are mostly correlated. The proposed method was applied to the evaluation of UHS for the KNGR (Korean Next Generation Reactor) and the APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400) nuclear power plant sites of B1, B4, C1 and C3. The most dominant frequency range with respect to the annual frequency of earthquakes was evaluated from the UHS analysis. It can be expected that the proposed method will improve the results of integrated risk assessments of NPPs rationally. We expect also that the proposed method will be applied to the evaluation of the UHS and of many other kinds of soil sites.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.61-71
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• 2006

A numerical procedure is presented fur evaluating seismic liquefaction on sloping ground sites. The procedure uses a fully coupled dynamic effective stress analysis with a plastic constitutive model called UBCSAND. The model was first calibrated against laboratory element behavior. This involved cyclic simple shear tests performed on loose sand with and without initial static shear stress. The numerical procedure is then verified by predicting a centrifuge test with a slope performed on loose Fraser River sand. The predicted excess pore pressures, accelerations and displacements are compared with the measurements. The results are shown to be in good agreement. The shear stress reversal patterns depend on static and cyclic shear stress levels and are shown to play a key role in evaluating liquefaction response in sloping ground sites. The sand near the slope has low effective confining stress and dilates more. When no stress reversals occur, the sand behaves in a stiffer manner that curtails the accumulated downslope displacements. The numerical procedure using UBCSAND can serve as a guide for design of new soil structures or retrofit of existing ones.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.371-390
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• 2010

Historical buildings in seismically active regions are severely damaged by earthquakes, since they certainly were not designed by the original builders to withstand seismic effects. In particular the reports after major ground motions indicate that earthquake-induced pounding between buildings may lead to substantial damage or even collapse of colliding structures. The research on structural pounding during earthquakes has been recently much advanced, although most of the studies are conducted on simplified single degree of freedom systems. In this paper a detailed pounding-involved response analysis of three adjacent structures is performed, concerning the main bodies of the "Quinto Orazio Flacco" school. The construction includes a main masonry building, with an M-shaped plan, and a reinforced concrete building, separated from the masonry one and realized along its free perimeter. By the analysis of the capacity curves obtained by suitable pushover procedures performed separately for each building, it emerges that masonry and reinforced concrete buildings are vulnerable to earthquake-induced structural pounding in the longitudinal direction. In particular, due to the geometric configuration of the school, a special case of impact between the reinforced concrete structure and two parts of the masonry building occurs. In order to evaluate the pounding-involved response of three adjacent structures, in this paper a numerical procedure is proposed, programmed using MATLAB software. Both a non-linear viscoelastic model to simulate impact and an elastic-perfectly plastic approximation of the storey shear force-drift relation are assumed, differently from many commercial softwares which admit just one non-linearity.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1061-1071
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• 2018

A subsea tunnel, being a super-sized underground structure must ensure safety at the time of earthquake, as well as at ordinary times. At the time of earthquake, in particular, of a subsea tunnel, a variety of response behaviors are induced owing to relative rigidity to the surrounding ground, or difference of displacement, so that the behavior characteristics can be hardly anticipated. The investigation aims to understand the behavior characteristics switched by earthquake of an imaginary subsea tunnel which passes through a fault zone having different physical properties from those of the surrounding ground. In order to achieve the aim, dynamic response behaviors of a subsea tunnel which passes through a fault zone were observed by means of indoor experiments. For the sake of improved earthquake resistance, a shape of subsea tunnel to which flexible segments have been applied was considered. Afterward, it is believed that a D/B can be established through 3-dimensional earthquake resistance interpretation of various grounds, on the basis of verified results from the experiments and interpretations under various conditions. The present investigation performed 1 g shaking table test in order to verify the result of 3-dimensional earthquake resistance interpretation. A model considering the similitude (1:100) of a scale-down model test was manufactured, and tests for three (3) Cases were carried out. Incident seismic wave was introduced by artificial seismic wave having both long-period and short-period earthquake properties in the horizontal direction which is rectangular to the processing direction of the tunnel, so that a fault zone was modeled. For numerical analysis, elastic modulus of the fault zone was assumed 1/5 value of the modulus of individual grounds surround the tunnel, in order to simulate a fault zone. Resultantly, reduced acceleration was confirmed with increase of physical properties of the fault zone, and the result from the shaking table test showed the same tendency as the result from 3-dimensional interpretation.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.103-111
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• 1995

Evaluating nonlinear response of a MDOF system under dynamic stochastic loads such as seismic excitation usually requires excessive computational efforts. To alleviate this computational difficulty, an approximation is developed in which the MDOF inelastic system is replaced by a simple nonlinear equivalent system(ENS).Me ENS retains the most important properties of the original system such as dynamic characteristics of the first two modes and the global yielding behavior of the MDOF system. The system response is described by the maximum global(building) and local(interstory) drifts. The equivalency is achieved by two response scaling factors, a global response scaling factor R/sub G/, and a local response scaling factor R/sub L/, applied to the responses of the ENS to match those of the original MDOF system. These response scaling factors are obtained as functions of ductility and mass participation factors of the first two modes of structures by extensive regression analyses based on results of responses of the MDOF system and the ENS to actual ground accelerations recorded in past earthquakes. To develop the ENS with two response scaling factors, Special Moment Resisting Steel Frames are considered. Then, these response scaling factors are applied to the response of ENS to obtain the nonlinear response of MDOF system.