• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.83-86
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• 1998

The results from the Individual Plant Examination of External Event of Yonggwyang nuclear power plants, unit 3 & 4, in Korea have shown that the high degree of diversities of the experts' opinions on seismicity and attenuation models is su, pp.sed to be generic cause of uncertainty of APEs(annual exceedance probability) in the PAHA(probabilistic seismic hazard analysis). This study investigated the sensitivity of the focal depth, which is one of the most uncertain seismicity parameters in Korea, Significant differences in resultant values of annual exceedance probabilities and much more symmetrical shape of the resultant PDFs(probability density functions), in case of consideration of focal depth, are found. These two results suggest that, even for the same seismic input data set including the seismicity models and ground motion attenuation models, to consider focal depth additionally for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis evaluation makes significant influence on the distributions of uncertainties and probabilities of exceedance per year for the whole ranges of seismic hazard levels. These facts suggest that it is necessary to derive focal depth parameter more effectively from the historical and instrumental documents on earthquake phenomena in Koran Peninsula for the future study of PSHA.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.403-410
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• 2018

The choice of attenuation relationships is one of the most important parts of seismic hazard analysis as using a different attenuation relationship will cause significant differences in the final result, particularly in near distances. This problem is responsible for huge sensibilities of attenuation relationships which are used in seismic hazard analysis. For achieving this goal, attenuation relationships require a good compatibility with the target region. Many researchers have put substantial efforts in their studies of strong ground motion predictions, and each of them had an influence on the progress of attenuation relationships. In this study, two attenuation relationships are presented using seismic data of Mazandaran province in the north of Iran by Genetic Expression Programming (GEP) algorithm. Two site classifications of soil and rock were considered regarding the shear wave velocity of top 30 meters of site. The quantity of primary data was 93 records; 63 of them were recorded on rock and 30 of them recorded on soil. Due to the shortage of records, a regression technique had been used for increasing them. Through using this technique, 693 data had been created; 178 data for soil and 515 data for rock conditions. The Results of this study show the observed PGA values in the region have high correlation coefficients with the predicted values and can be used in seismic hazard analysis studies in the region.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.413-420
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• 1998

In this paper, two methods, Stepp's and EQHAZARD, are introduced and applied to a recent earthquake catalog for the entire Korean Peninsula that can estimate the seismicity by incorporating the incompleteness of the earthquake catalog. EQHAZARD method, different from Stepp's method in that it used priori information besides the assumption of stationary Poisson process of the earthquakes, produces the higher seismicity rate for the smaller earthquakes. EQHAZARD method are also used to estimated the incompleteness of the recent earthquake catalog for the southern part of the Korean Peninsula in terms of the Probability of Activity for the specified earthquke magnitude classes and time periods. It is believed that the Probability of Activity thus obtained can be used as a strong priori information in estimating the seismicity for a seismic source within the region where there are not enough earthquakes detected. Finally, it is demonstrated that the arbitrary selection of the methods. of incompleteness analysis brings quite different seismic hazard results, which suggests the need to employ a rigid quantitative method for incompleteness analysis in estimating the seismicity parameters in order to reduce the uncertainty in the Seismic Hazard Results with the EQHAZARD method being one of the competent practical alternatives.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.301-309
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• 2019

A methodology to assess seismic fragility of a nuclear power plant (NPP) using a conditional mean spectrum is proposed as an alternative to using a uniform hazard response spectrum. Rather than the single-scenario conditional mean spectrum, which is the conventional conditional mean spectrum based on a single scenario, a multi-scenario conditional mean spectrum is proposed for the case in which no single scenario is dominant. The multi-scenario conditional mean spectrum is defined as the weighted average of different conditional mean spectra, each one of which corresponds to an individual scenario. The weighting factors for scenarios are obtained from a deaggregation of seismic hazards. As a validation example, a seismic fragility assessment of an NPP containment structure is performed using a uniform hazard response spectrum and different single-scenario conditional mean spectra and multi-scenario conditional mean spectra. In the example, the number of scenarios primarily influences the median capacity of the evaluated structure. Meanwhile, the control frequency, a key parameter of a conditional mean spectrum, plays an important role in reducing logarithmic standard deviation of the corresponding fragility curves and corresponding high confidence of low probability of failure (HCLPF) capacity.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.52-61
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• 2016

The purpose of the study was to create a probabilistic seismic hazard map using the input data that reflected the seismo-tectonic characteristics of the Korean Peninsula by applying USGS program (Harmsen (2008). The program was partly modified for the purpose of this study. The uncertainty of input parameters given by specialists was reflected in calculating the seismic hazard values by logic tree method. The general pattern of PGA was quite sensitive and similar to the shape of areal source. The probabilistic seismic hazard map showed the contour distribution of peak acceleration (%g) with 10% probability of exceedance in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, and 500 years. The result showed that the peak ground acceleration (PGA) values of the northern peninsula were almost half values of the southern peninsula except Hwanghae province. The general trend of the hazard map extended in the direction of NW-SE from Whanghae province to south-eastern regions of the peninsula. The values in northern part of Kangwon province were relatively lower than other areas in the southern peninsula. The maps produced through this study are considered valuable in regulating the seismic safety of the major facilities in the Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.485-494
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• 2016

The risk-based assessment, also called time-based assessment of structure is usually performed to provide seismic risk evaluation of a target structure for its entire life-cycle, e.g. 50 years. The prediction of collapse probability is the estimator in the risk-based assessment. While the risk-based assessment is the key in the performance-based earthquake engineering, its application is very limited because this evaluation method is very expensive in terms of simulation and computational efforts. So the evaluation database for many archetype structures usually serve as representative of the specific system. However, there is no such an assessment performed for building stocks in Korea. Consequently, the performance objective of current building code, KBC is not clear at least in a quantitative way. This shortcoming gives an unresolved issue to insurance industry, socio-economic impact, seismic safety policy in national and local governments. In this study, we evaluate the comprehensive seismic performance of an low-rise residential buildings with discontinuous structural walls, so called piloti-type structure which is commonly found in low-rise domestic building stocks. The collapse probability is obtained using the risk integral of a conditioned collapse capacity function and regression of current hazard curve. Based on this approach it is expected to provide a robust tool to seismic safety policy as well as seismic risk analysis such as Probable Maximum Loss (PML) commonly used in the insurance industry.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2023

In Korea, most nuclear power plants were designed based on the design response spectrum of Regulatory Guide 1.60 of the NRC. However, in the case of earthquakes occurring in the country, the characteristics of seismic motions in Korea and the design response spectrum differed. The seismic motion in Korea had a higher spectral acceleration in the high-frequency range compared to the design response spectrum. The seismic capacity may be reduced when evaluating the seismic performance of the equipment with high-frequency earthquakes compared with what is evaluated by the design response spectrum for the equipment with a high natural frequency. Therefore, EPRI proposed the inelastic energy absorption factor for the equipment anchorage. In this study, the seismic performance of welding anchorage was evaluated by considering domestic seismic characteristics and EPRI's inelastic energy absorption factor. In order to reflect the characteristics of domestic earthquakes, the uniform hazard response spectrum (UHRS) of Uljin was used. Moreover, the seismic performance of the equipment was evaluated with a design response spectrum of R.G.1.60 and a uniform hazard response spectrum (UHRS) as seismic inputs. As a result, it was confirmed that the seismic performance of the weld anchorage could be increased when the inelastic energy absorption factor is used. Also, a comparative analysis was performed on the seismic capacity of the anchorage of equipment by the welding and the extended bolt.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.377-391
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• 2023

The high seismic risk has once again revealed in Türkiye with two major earthquakes that occurred on 06.02.2023, which took its place among the most destructive earthquakes in the last century. Totally, 65 earthquakes that occurred in the historical period in Türkiye were taken into account within the scope of this study. The seismic parameters were compared by considering the last two earthquake hazard maps for the epicenters of these earthquakes. Earthquake Intensity (I) of historical earthquakes were converted to Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) by using suggested relations. Structural analyzes were performed for a sample reinforced-concrete building by using the obtained PGA's and predicted PGA's in the last two earthquake hazard maps. In the structural analysis, two different material groups such as low (C12-S220) and normal (C25-S420) were selected. As the material strength increased, the period value decreased, while the seismic capacity and stiffness increased. It has been determined that there are differences between the measured and proposed seismic risks for some earthquakes, and as a result, there are significant differences between the expected target displacement values from the structures. Therefore, it will not be possible to estimate the damage and to determine the building performance realistically. The main purpose of the study is to reveal whether the earthquake risk is adequately represented on seismic and structural parameters.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.515-529
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• 2018

Multiple hazards (multihazard) conditions may cause significant risk to structures that are originally designed for individual hazard scenarios. Such a multihazard condition arises when an earthquake strikes to a bridge pre-exposed to scour at foundations due to flood events. This study estimates the impact spectrum of flood-induced scour on seismic vulnerability of bridges. Characteristic river-crossing highway bridges are formed based on the information obtained from bridge inventories. These bridges are analyzed under earthquake-only and the abovementioned multihazard conditions, and bridge fragility curves are developed at component and system levels. Research outcome shows that bridges having pile shafts as foundation elements are protected from any additional seismic vulnerability due to the presence of scour. However, occurrence of floods can increase seismic fragility of bridges at lower damage states due to the adverse impact of scour on bridge components at superstructure level. These findings facilitate bridge design under the stated multihazard condition.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.111-119
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• 1998

This paper reports a part of research work on earthquake resistance consideration in regions of moderate seismicity, which is being carried out in the Department of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. The possible seismic hazard in Hong Kong, which is located in a region of moderate seismicity, is described. A case study is presented to compare the wind and earthquake effects on Hong Kong buildings and to assess whether seismic analysis and desing is necessary for building structure. Potential problems of reinforced concrete buildings under earthquake effects in regions of moderate seismicity are discussed.