• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2022

The use of electricity and communication between electronic devices is increasing daily, which makes the stability of electrical power supply vital. Since the 1990s, large earthquakes have occurred frequently causing considerable direct damage to electrical power facilities as well as secondary damage, such as difficulty in restoring functions due to the interruption of electric power supply. Therefore, it is very important to establish measures to protect electrical power facilities, such as transformers and switchboards, from earthquakes. In this study, a 154 kV transformer whose service life had expired was installed on the base fabricated by simulating the field conditions and conducting the shaking table tests. The dynamic characteristics and seismic behavior of the 154 kV transformer were analyzed through the resonance frequency search test and seismic simulation test that considers the front, rear, left, and right directions. Since the purpose of this study is to analyze the acceleration amplification in the bushing due to the acceleration amplification, the experimental results were analyzed focusing on the acceleration response and the converted acceleration amplification ratio rather than the failure due to the displacement response of the transformer. The seismic force amplification at the transformer bushing was evaluated by simulating the characteristics of electrical power facilities in South Korea, and compared with the IEC TS 61463 acceleration amplification factor. Finally, the amplification factor at zero period acceleration (ZPA) modified for each return period was summarized. The results of this study can be used as data to define the amplification factor at ZPA of the transformer bushing, simulating the characteristics of electrical power facilities in Korea.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2024

Generally, the rubble mound installed on the slope embankment of the open-type wharf is designed based on the impact of wave force, with no consideration for the impact of seismic force. Therefore, in this study, dynamic centrifuge model test results were analyzed to examine the acceleration amplification of embankment reinforced with rubble mound under seismic conditions. The experimental results show that when rubble mounds were installed on the ground surface of the embankment, acceleration response of embankment decreased by approximately 22%, and imbalance in ground settlement decreased significantly from eight to two times. Furthermore, based on the experimental results, one-dimensional site response (1DSR) analyses were conducted. The analysis results indicated that reinforcing the embankment with rubble mound can decrease the peak ground acceleration (PGA) and short period response (below 0.6 seconds) of the ground surface by approximately 28%. However, no significant impact on the long period response (above 0.6 seconds) was observed. Additionally, in ground with lower relative density, a significant decrease in response and wide range of reduced periods were observed. Considering that the reduced short period range corresponds to the critical periods in the design response spectrum, reinforcing the loose ground with rubble mound can effectively decrease the acceleration response of the ground surface.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2023

Earth fissures with several kilometers will inevitably approach or cross the metro line, significantly threatening the safety of the underground structure in the earth fissure site. However, the influence of the earth fissure site's amplification effect on the metro station's dynamic response is still unclear. A representative earth fissure in Xi'an was taken as an example to establish a numerical model of a metro station in the earth fissure site. The dynamic response characteristics of the metro stations at different distances from the earth fissure under various seismic waves were calculated. The results show that the existence of the earth fissure significantly amplifies the dynamic response of the nearby underground structures. The responses of the axial force, shear force, bending moment, normal stress, horizontal displacement, inter-story drift, and relative slip of the metro station were all amplified within a specific influence range. The amplification effect increases with the seismic wave intensity. The amplification effect caused by the earth fissure has relatively weak impacts on the axial shear, shear force, bending movement, normal stress, and horizontal movement; slightly larger impacts on the inter-story drift and acceleration; and a significant impact on the relative slip. The influence ranges of the axial force and normal stress are approximately 20 m. The influence ranges of the acceleration and inter-story drift can reach 30 m. Therefore, the seismic fortification level of the underground structure in the earth fissure site needs to be improved.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.121-129
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• 2012

All contemporary seismic Codes have adopted smooth design acceleration response spectra, which have derived by statistical analysis of many elastic response spectra of natural accelerograms. The above smooth design spectra are characterized by two main branches, an horizontal branch that is 2.5 times higher than the peak ground acceleration, and a declining parabolic branch. According to Eurocode EN/1998, the period range of the horizontal, flat branch is extended from 0.1 s, for rock soils, up to 0.8 s for softer ones. However, from many natural recorded accelerograms of important earthquakes, the real spectral amplification factor appears to be much higher than 2.5 and this means that the spectrum leads to an unsafe seismic design of the structures. This point is an issue open to question and it is the object of the present study. In the present paper, the spectral amplification factor of the smooth design acceleration spectra is re-calculated on the grounds of a known "reliability index" for a desired probability of exceedance. As a pilot scheme, the seismic area of Greece is chosen, as it is the most seismically hazardous area in Europe. The accelerograms of the 82 most important earthquakes, which have occurred in Greece during the last 38 years, are used. The soil categories are taken into account according to EN/1998. The results that have been concluded from these data are compared with the results obtained from other strong earthquakes reported in the World literature.

• 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.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.159-169
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• 2020

Acceleration amplification factors, which are variables used in the seismic design of power facilities installed inside substation structures, are presented in the seismic design standards of the United States (US), Japan, and Korea. Unlike the coefficients presented in the design standards of the US and Japan, those presented in domestic design standards can be obtained only by performing dynamic analysis when the substation structure has more than four floors. Because most substation structures in Korea have 4-5 stories, the existing acceleration amplification factor is insufficient to be applied to actual substation structures. To suggest an acceleration amplification factor suitable for domestic substation structure types, the acceleration amplification factor was evaluated for seven representative substation structures. The acceleration amplification factors were evaluated by constructing in-structure response spectra based on a study of far-field and near-fault earthquakes. In general, the acceleration amplification coefficients α_J and α_A according to the US and Japan seismic design criteria tend to be overestimated compared with the acceleration amplification factors obtained through dynamic analysis based on the study of near-fault and far-field earthquakes.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.123-128
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• 2020

Analysis of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake and the 2017 Pohang earthquake showed the characteristics of a typical high-frequency earthquake with many high-frequency components, short time strong motion duration, and large peak ground acceleration relative to the magnitude of the earthquake. Domestic nuclear power plants were designed and evaluated based on NRC's Regulatory Guide 1.60 design response spectrum, which had a great deal of energy in the low-frequency range. Therefore, nuclear power plants should carry out seismic verification and seismic performance evaluation of systems, structures, and components by reflecting the domestic characteristics of earthquakes. In this study, high-frequency amplification factors that can be used for seismic verification and seismic performance evaluation of nuclear power plant systems, structures, and equipment were analyzed. In order to analyze the high-frequency amplification factor, five sets of seismic time history were generated, which were matched with the uniform hazard response spectrum to reflect the characteristics of domestic earthquake motion. The nuclear power plant was subjected to seismic analysis for the construction of the Korean standard nuclear power plant, OPR1000, which is a reactor building, an auxiliary building assembly, a component cooling water heat exchanger building, and an essential service water building. Based on the results of the seismic analysis, a high-frequency amplification factor was derived upon the calculation of the floor response spectrum of the important locations of nuclear power plants. The high-frequency amplification factor can be effectively used for the seismic verification and seismic performance evaluation of electric equipment which are sensitive to high-frequency earthquakes.

• 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.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.279-291
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• 2013

The seismic damage of non-structural components, such as communication facilities, causes direct economic losses as well as indirect losses which result from social chaos occurring with downtime of communication and financial management network systems. The current Korean seismic code, KBC2009, prescribes the design criteria and requirements of non-structural components based on their elastic response. However, it is difficult for KBC to reflect the dynamic characteristics of structures where non-structural components exist. In this study, both linear and nonlinear time history analyses of structures with various analysis parameters were carried out and floor acceleration spectra obtained from analyses were compared with both ground acceleration spectra used for input records of the analyses and the design floor acceleration spectrum proposed by National Radio Research Agency. Also, this study investigates to find out the influence of structural dynamic characteristics on the floor acceleration spectra. The analysis results show that the acceleration amplification is observed due to the resonance phenomenon and such amplification increases with the increase of building heights and with the decrease of structure's energy dissipation capacities.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.51-63
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• 2020

In this study, the model test of a reservoir was performed through a dynamic analysis method by using the data obtained from seismometers. Besides, we analyzed the behavior of the seismic acceleration amplification by reservoir height. To test the model, the data measured by the seismometers were applied at the foundation of the reservoir as input data, and the results from the analysis were compared with the data measured at the dam crest. The analysis results manifest that the peak values and the trend of the seismic wave obtained from the numerical analysis are in good agreement with the measured data. Also, the acceleration amplification ratio was proportional to the reservoir height and the magnitude of the earthquake. Through this study, the dynamic analysis method, which is based on the cyclic elastoplastic constitutive equation, can be considered as an appropriate technique to analyse the seismic behavior by the application of the data obtained from the seismometers installed in the reservoir. Also, the applicability of the seismometers can be enhanced through this technique in the future.