• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.203-211
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• 2018

Issues with past practice in seismic hazard analysis of nuclear power plant sites in Korea are addressed. Brief review on both deterministic and probabilistic methods in seismic hazard analysis is given, and most of the continuing discussion is focussed on the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. Causes of uncertainty are traced on the basis of the cases that the assessment methodology was applied to the nuclear power plant sites. Considerations on the assessment include the role of experts, a representative seismic catalog, seismic source zonation, earthquake ground-motion relationship, and evaluation process. Factors increasing uncertainty in each item are analyzed and some feasible solutions are discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.653-663
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• 2017

A seismic margin assessment evaluates how much margin exists for the system under beyond design basis earthquake events. Specifically, the seismic margin for the entire system is evaluated by utilizing a systems analysis based on the sub-system and component seismic fragility data. Each seismic fragility curve is obtained by using empirical, experimental, and/or numerical simulation data. The systems analysis is generally performed by employing a fault tree analysis. However, the current practice has clear limitations in that it cannot deal with the uncertainties of basic components and accommodate the newly observed data. Therefore, in this paper, we present a Bayesian-based seismic margin assessment that is conducted using seismic fragility data and fault tree analysis including Bayesian inference. This proposed approach is first applied to the pooltype nuclear research reactor system for the quantitative evaluation of the seismic margin. The results show that the applied approach can allow updating by considering the newly available data/information at any level of the fault tree, and can identify critical scenarios modified due to new information. Also, given the seismic hazard information, this approach is further extended to the real-time risk evaluation. Thus, the proposed approach can finally be expected to solve the fundamental restrictions of the current method.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.87-97
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• 2009

The seismic site coefficients are often used with the seismic hazard maps to develop the design response spectrum at the surface. The site coefficients are most commonly developed deterministically, while the seismic hazarde maps are derived probabilistically. There is, hence, an inherent incompatibility between the two approaches. However, they are used together in the seismic design codes without a clear rational basis. To resolve the fundamental imcompatibility between the site coefficients and hazard maps, this study uses a novel probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) technique that simulates the results of a standard PSHA at a rock outcrop, but integrates the site response analysis function to capture the site amplification effects within the PSHA platform. Another important advantage of the method is its ability to model the uncertainty, variability, and randomness of the soil properties. The new PSHA was used to develop fully probabilistic site coefficients for site classes of the seismic design code and another sets of site classes proposed in Korea. Comparisons highlight the pronounced discrepancy between the site coefficients of the seismic design code and the proposed coefficients, while another set of site coefficients show differences only at selected site classes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.527-542
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• 2020

In traditional eccentrically braced steel frames, damages and plastic deformations are limited to the links and the main structure members are required tremendous sizes to ensure elasticity with no damage based on the force-based seismic design method, this limits the practical application of the structure. The high strength steel frames with eccentric braces refer to Q345 (the nominal yield strength is 345 MPa) steel used for links, and Q460 steel utilized for columns and beams in the eccentrically brace steel frames, the application of high strength steels not only brings out better economy and higher strength, but also wider application prospects in seismic fortification zone. Here, the structures with four type eccentric braces are chosen, including K-type, Y-type, D-type and V-type. These four types EBFs have various performances, such as stiffness, bearing capacity, ductility and failure mode. To evaluate the seismic behavior of the high strength steel frames with variable eccentric braces within the similar performance objectives, four types EBFs with 4-storey, 8-storey, 12-storey and 16-storey were designed by performance-based seismic design method. The nonlinear static behavior by pushover analysis and dynamic performance by time history analysis in the SAP2000 software was applied. A total of 11 ground motion records are adopted in the time history analysis. Ground motions representing three seismic hazards: first, elastic behavior in low earthquake hazard level for immediate occupancy, second, inelastic behavior of links in moderate earthquake hazard level for rapid repair, and third, inelastic behavior of the whole structure in very high earthquake hazard level for collapse prevention. The analyses results indicated that all structures have similar failure mode and seismic performance.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.103-109
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• 2009

The probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) calculates the probability of exceedance of a certain ground motion parameter within a finite period at a site of interest. PSHA is very robust in that it can account for the uncertainties in seismic source, wave passage effect, and seismic site effects and hence, it is the most widely used method in quantifying the future earthquake induced ground vibration. This paper evaluates the applicability of a new PSHA that is alleged to be able to reproduce the results of a conventional PSHA method, but generates a series of earthquake scenarios and corresponding ground motion time histories that are compatible with the scenarios. In the application, a 40,000 year period is simulated, during which 16,738 virtual earthquakes have occurred. The seismic hazard maps are generated from the outputs of the new PSHA. Comparisons with the maps generated by the conventional PSHA method demonstrated that the new PSHA can successfully reproduce the results of a conventional PSHA. The new PSHA may not be very meaningful in itself. However, the real advantage of the method is that it can be used to develop probabilisitic seismic site coefficients. The suite of generated ground motion time histories are used to develop probabilistic site coefficients in the companion paper.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.365-375
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• 2017

Seismic risk management has two main technical aspects: to recommend the construction of high-performance buildings and other structures using earthquake-resistant designs or evaluate existing ones, and to prepare emergency plans using realistic seismic scenarios. An overview of seismic risk assessment methodologies in Croatia is provided with details regarding the components of the assessment procedures: hazard, vulnerability and exposure. For Croatia, hazard is presented with two maps and it is expressed in terms of the peak horizontal ground acceleration during an earthquake, with the return period of 95 or 475 years. A standard building typology catalogue for Croatia has not been prepared yet, but a database for the fourth largest city in Croatia is currently in its initial stage. Two methods for earthquake vulnerability assessment are applied and compared. The first is a relatively simple and fast analysis of potential seismic vulnerability proposed by Croatian researchers using damage index (DI) as a numerical value indicating the level of structural damage, while the second is the Macroseismic method.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.107-115
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• 1991

A probabilistic-Fuzzy model for seismic hazard analysis is developed. The proposed model is able to reproduce both the randomness and the imprecision in conjunction with earthquake occurrences. Results-of this research are (a) membership functions of both peak ground accelerations associated with a given probability of exceedance and probabilities of exceedance associated with a given peak ground acceleration, and (b) characteristic values of membership functions at each location of interest. The proposed probabilistic-fuzzy model for assessment of seismic hazard is successfully applied to the Wasatch Front Range in Utah in order to obtain the seismic maps for different annual probabilities of exceedance, different peak ground accelerations, and different time periods.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.605-616
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• 2018

In this paper, an extended Cloud analysis method is developed for seismic fragility assessment of existing highway bridges in the southeast Queensland region. This method extends the original Cloud analysis dataset by performing scaled Cloud analyses. The original and scaled Cloud datasets are then paired to generate seismic fragility curves. The seismic hazard in this region is critically reviewed, and the ground motion records are selected for the time-history analysis based on various record selection criteria. A parametric highway bridge model is developed in the OpenSees analysis software, and a sampling technique is employed to quantify the uncertainties of highway bridges ubiquitous in this region. Technical recommendations are also given for the seismic performance evaluation of highway bridges in such low-to-moderate seismic zones. Finally, a probabilistic fragility study is conducted by performing a total of 8000 time-history analyses and representative bridge fragility curves are generated. It is illustrated that the seismic fragility curves generated by the proposed extended Cloud analysis method are in close agreement with those which are obtained by the rigorous incremental dynamic analysis method. Also, it reveals that more than 50% of highway bridges existing in southeast Queensland will be damaged subject to a peak ground acceleration of 0.14 g.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.64-71
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• 1999

Seismicity of the Korean Peninsula shows intraplate seismicity that has irregular pattern in both time and space. Seismic data of the Korean peninsula consists of historical earthquakes and instrumental earthquakes. In this study we devide these data into complete part and incomplete part and considering earthquake size uncertainty estimate seismic hazard parameters - activity rate λ, b value of Gutenberg-Richter relation and maximum possible earthquake IMAX by statistical method in each major tectonic provinces. These estimated values are expected to be important input parameters in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and evaluation of design earthquake.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.162-172
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• 2016

Since the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and the Kobe earthquake in 1995 occurred, the concept of performance based design has been introduced for designing various kinds of important structures and buildings. Uniform hazard spectra (UHS), with annual exceedance probabilities, corresponding to the performance level of each structure, are required for performance-based design. The probabilistic seismic hazard analysis was performed using spectral ground motion prediction equations, which were developed from both Korean Peninsula and Central and Eastern US region, and several seismotectonic models suggested by 10 expert panel members in seismology and tectonics. The uniform hazard spectra for 5 highly populated cities in Korea, with recurrence period of 500, 1,000, and 2,500 years using the seismic hazard at the frequencies of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0, 10.0 Hz and Peak ground acceleration (PGA) were analyzed using the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. The sensitivity analysis suggests that spectral ground motion prediction equations impact much more on seismic hazard than what seismotectonic models do. The uniform hazard spectra commonly showed a maximum hazard at the frequency of 10 Hz and also showed the similar shape characteristics to the previous study and related technical guides to nuclear facilities.