• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.705-714
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• 2019

Seismic assessment of underground structures is one of the challenging problems in engineering design. This is because there are usually many sources of uncertainties in rocks and probable earthquake characteristics. Therefore, for decreasing of the uncertainties, seismic response of underground structures should be evaluated by sufficient number of earthquake records which is scarcely possible in common seismic assessment of underground structures. In the present study, a practical risk-based approach was performed for seismic risk assessment of an unsupported tunnel. For this purpose, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) was used to evaluate the seismic response of a tunnel in south-west railway of Iran and different analyses were conducted using 15 real records of earthquakes which were chosen from the PEER ground motion database. All of the selected records were scaled to different intensity levels (PGA=0.1-1.7 g) and applied to the numerical models. Based on the numerical modeling results, seismic fragility curves of the tunnel under study were derived from the IDA curves. In the next, seismic risk curve of the tunnel were determined by convolving the hazard and fragility curves. On the basis of the tunnel fragility curves, an earthquake with PGA equal to 0.35 g may lead to severe damage or collapse of the tunnel with only 3% probability and the probability of moderate damage to the tunnel is 12%.

• 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.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2017

One of the major developments in seismic design over the past few decades is the increased emphasis for limit states design now generally termed as Performance Based Engineering. Performance Based Seismic Design (PBSD) uses Displacement Based Design (DBD) methodology wherein structures are designed for a target level of displacement rather than Force Based Design (FBD) methodology where force or strength aspect is being used. Indian codes still follow FBD methodology compared to other modern codes like CalTrans, which follow DBD methodology. Hence in the present study, a detailed review of the two most common design methodologies i.e., FBD and DBD is presented. A critical evaluation of both these methodologies by comparing the seismic performance of bridge models designed using them highlight the importance of adopting DBD techniques in Indian Standards also. The inherent discrepancy associated with FBD in achieving 'seismic regularity' is highlighted by assessing the seismic performance of bridges with varied relative height ratios. The study also encompasses a brief comparison of the seismic design and detailing provisions of IRC 112 (2011), IRC 21 (2000), AASHTO LRFD (2012) and CalTrans (2013) to evaluate the discrepancies on the same in the Indian Standards. Based on the seismic performance evaluation and literature review a need for increasing the minimum longitudinal reinforcement percentage stipulated by IRC 112 (2011) for bridge columns is found necessary.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.463-482
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• 2016

Air Traffic Control (ATC) towers play significant role in the functionality of each airport. In spite of having complex dynamic behavior and major role in mitigating post-earthquake problems, less attention has been paid to the seismic performance of these structures. Herein, seismic response of an existing ATC tower with a wall-frame structural system that has been designed and detailed according to a local building code was evaluated through the framework of performance-based seismic design. Results of this study indicated that the linear static and dynamic analyses used for the design of this tower were incapable of providing a safety margin for the required seismic performance levels especially when the tower was subjected to strong ground motions. It was concluded that, for seismic design of ATC towers practice engineers should refer to a more sophisticated seismic design approach (e.g., performance-based seismic design) which accounts for inelastic behavior of structural components in order to comply with the higher seismic performance objectives of ATC towers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.3
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• pp.401-413
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• 2022

The collapse of civil infrastructure due to natural disasters results in financial losses and many casualties. In particular, the recent increase in earthquake activities has highlighted on the importance of assessing the seismic performance and predicting the seismic risk of a structure. However, the nonlinear behavior of a structure and the uncertainty in ground motion complicate the accurate seismic response prediction of a structure. Artificial intelligence can overcome these limitations to reasonably predict the nonlinear behavior of structures. In this study, a deep learning-based algorithm was developed to estimate the time-history seismic response of bridge structures. The proposed deep neural network was trained using structural and ground motion parameters. The performance of the seismic response prediction algorithm showed the similar phase and magnitude to those of the time-history analysis in a single-degree-of-freedom system that exhibits nonlinear behavior as a main structural element. Then, the proposed algorithm was expanded to predict the seismic response and fragility prediction of a bridge system. The proposed deep neural network reasonably predicted the nonlinear seismic behavior of piers and bearings for approximately 93% and 87% of the test dataset, respectively. The results of the study also demonstrated that the proposed algorithm can be utilized to assess the seismic fragility of bridge components and system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.385-401
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• 2022

Uncertainty quantification is the most important challenge in seismic fragility assessment of structures. The precision increment of the quantification method leads to reliable results but at the same time increases the computational costs and the latter will be so undesirable in cases such as reliability-based design optimization which includes numerous probabilistic seismic analyses. Accordingly, the authors' effort has been put on the development and validation of an approach that has reduced computational cost in seismic fragility assessment. In this regard, it is necessary to apply the appropriate methods for consideration of two categories of uncertainties consisting of uncertainties related to the ground motions and structural characteristics, separately. Also, cable-stayed bridges have been specifically selected because as a result of their complexity and the according time-consuming seismic analyses, reducing the computations corresponding to their fragility analyses is worthy of studying. To achieve this, the fragility assessment of three case studies is performed based on existing and proposed approaches, and a comparative study on the efficiency in the estimation of seismic responses. For this purpose, statistical validation is conducted on the seismic demand and fragility resulting from the mentioned approaches, and through a comprehensive interpretation, sufficient arguments for the acceptable errors of the proposed approach are presented. Finally, this study concludes that the combination of the Capacity Spectrum Method (CSM) and Uniform Design Sampling (UDS) in advanced proposed forms can provide adequate accuracy in seismic fragility estimation at a significantly reduced computational cost.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.925-942
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• 2016

With ongoing development of earthquake engineering research and the lessons learnt from a series of strong earthquakes, the seismic design concept of "resilience" has received much attention. Resilience describes the capability of a structure or a city to recover rapidly after earthquakes or other disasters. As one of the main features of urban constructions, tall buildings have greater impact on the sustainability and resilience of major cities. Therefore, it is important and timely to quantify their seismic resilience. In this work, a quantitative comparison of the seismic resilience of two tall buildings designed according to the Chinese and US seismic design codes was conducted. The prototype building, originally designed according to the US code as part of the Tall Building Initiative (TBI) Project, was redesigned in this work according to the Chinese codes under the same design conditions. Two refined nonlinear finite element (FE) models were established for both cases and their seismic responses were evaluated at different earthquake intensities, including the service level earthquake (SLE), the design-based earthquake (DBE) and the maximum considered earthquake (MCE). In addition, the collapse fragility functions of these two building models were established through incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Based on the numerical results, the seismic resilience of both models was quantified and compared using the new-generation seismic performance assessment method proposed by FEMA P-58. The outcomes of this study indicate that the seismic resilience of the building according to the Chinese design is slightly better than that according to the US design. The conclusions drawn from this research are expected to guide further in-depth studies on improving the seismic resilience of tall buildings.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2024

Piloti-type structures with vertical irregularity are vulnerable to earthquakes due to the soft structure of the first story. Structural characteristics of buildings can significantly affect the seismic loss function, calculated based on seismic fragility, and therefore need to be considered. This study investigated the effects of the number of stories and core locations on the seismic loss function of piloti-type buildings in Korea. Twelve analytical models were developed considering two variations: three stories (4-story, 5-story, and 6-story) and four core locations (center core, x-eccentric core, y-eccentric core, and xy-eccentric core). The interstory drift ratio and peak floor acceleration were assessed through incremental dynamic analysis using 44 earthquake records, and seismic fragility was derived. Seismic loss functions were calculated and compared using the derived seismic fragility and repair cost ratio of each component. The results indicate that the seismic loss function increases with more stories and when the core is eccentrically located in the piloti-type structure model. Therefore, the uncertainty due to the number of stories and core location should be considered when deriving the seismic loss function of piloti-type structures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.303-316
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• 2023

With the development and utilization of urban underground space, the artificial ground freezing technology has been widely used in the construction of underground engineering in soft soil areas. The mechanical properties of soft clay changed greatly after freezing and thawing, which affected the seismic performance of underground structures. In this paper, a series of triaxial tests were carried out to study the dynamic response of the freezing-thawing clay under the seismic load considering different dynamic stress amplitudes and different confining pressures. The reduction factor of dynamic shear stress was determined to correct the amplitude of the seismic load. The deformation development mode, the stress-strain relationship and the energy dissipation behavior of the soft clay under the seismic load were analyzed. An empirical model for predicting accumulative plastic strain was proposed and validated considering the loading times, the confining pressures and the dynamic stress amplitudes. The relevant research results can provide a theoretical reference to the seismic design of underground structures in soft clay areas.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.319-325
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• 2021

The 2011 East Japan Earthquake caused accidents at a number of nuclear power plants in Fukushima, highlighting the need for a study on the seismic safety of multiple NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) units. In the case of nuclear power plants built on a site that shows a similar seismic response, there is at least a correlation between the seismic damage of structures, systems, and components (SSCs) of nuclear power plants. In this study, a probabilistic seismic safety assessment was performed for the loss of essential power events of twin units. To derive an appropriate seismic damage correlation coefficient, a probabilistic seismic response analysis was performed. Using the external event mensuration system program, we analyzed the seismic fragility and seismic risk by composing a failure tree of multiple loss of essential power events. Additionally, a comparative analysis was performed considering the seismic damage correlation between SSCs as completely independent and completely dependent.