• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.383-397
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• 2018

Traditional base isolation systems focus on isolating the seismic response of a structure in the horizontal direction. However, in regions where the vertical earthquake excitation is significant (such as near-fault region), a traditional base-isolated building exhibits a significant vertical vibration. To eliminate this shortcoming, a rocking-isolated system named Telescopic Column (TC) is proposed in this paper. Detailed rocking and isolation mechanism of the TC system is presented. The seismic performance of the TC is compared with the traditional elastomeric bearing (EB) and friction pendulum (FP) base-isolated systems. A 4-storey reinforced concrete moment-resisting frame (RC-MRF) is selected as the reference superstructure. The seismic response of the reference superstructure in terms of column axial forces, base shears, floor accelerations, inter-storey drift ratios (IDR) and collapse margin ratios (CMRs) are evaluated using OpenSees. The results of the nonlinear dynamic analysis subjected to multi-directional earthquake excitations show that the superstructure equipped with the newly proposed TC is more resilient and exhibits a superior response with higher margin of safety against collapse when compared with the same superstructure with the traditional base-isolation (BI) system.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2015

In order to perform a soil-isolation-structure interaction analysis of seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, the nonlinear behavior of a seismic isolation system may be converted to an equivalent linear model used in frequency domain analysis. Seismic responses for seismically isolated NPP containment structures subjected to a simple artificial acceleration history and different site class earthquakes are evaluated for the equivalent-linear and nonlinear models that have been applied to lead-rubber bearing (LRB) modeling. It can be observed that the maximum displacements of the equivalent linear model are larger than that of the nonlinear model. From the floor response spectrum analysis for the top of NPP containment structures, it can be observed that the spectral acceleration of an equivalent linear model at about 0.5 Hz frequency is about 2~3 times larger than that of a nonlinear model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.531-543
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• 2023

Base isolation is one of the most widely implemented and well-known technique to reduce structural vibration and damages during an earthquake. However, while the base-isolated structure reduces storey drift significantly, it also increases the base drifts causing many practical problems. This study proposes the use of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) wires for the reduction in base drift while controlling the overall structure vibrations. A multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) structure along with base isolators and Shape-Memory-Alloys (SMA) wires in diagonal is tested experimentally and analytically. The isolation bearing considered in this study consists of laminates of steel and silicon rubber. The performance of the proposed structure is evaluated and studied under different loadings including harmonic loading and seismic excitation. To assess the seismic performance of the proposed structure, shake table tests are conducted on base-isolated MDOF frame structure incorporating SMA wires, which is subjected to incremental harmonic and historic seismic loadings. Root mean square acceleration, displacement and drift are analyzed and discussed in detail for each story. To better understand the structure response, the percentage reduction of displacement is also determined for each story. The result shows that the reduction in the response of the proposed structure is much better than conventional base-isolated structure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.51-60
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• 1998

Base isolation is an innovative design strategy that provides a practical alternative for the seismic design of structures. Base isolators, mainly employed to isolate large structures subjected to earthquake ground excitations and to rehabilitate structures damaged by past earthquakes, deflect and absorb the seismic energy horizontally transmitted to the structures. This study demonstrated that the base isolation system may offer effective performance for bridges during severe seismic events through shaking table tests. Two base isolation systems using laminated rubber bearings with and without hydraulic dampers are tested. The test results strongly show that the laminate rubber bearings cause the natural period of the bridge structure increased considerably, which results in the deck acceleration and the shear forces on the deck acceleratino and the shear forces on the piers reduced significantly. The results also demonstrate that the hydraulic dampers enhance the system's capacity in dissipating energy to reduce the relative displacement between the bridge deck and the pier.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.05a
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• pp.1021-1026
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• 1995

The seismic responses of a base isolated Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) are investigated using a mathematical model which expresses the superstructure as lumped mass-spring model and the seismic isolator as an equivalent spring-damper. Time history analyses are performed for the 1940 E1 Centre earthquakes in both horizontal and vertical directions. In the analysis, structural damping of 5% is used for the superstructure. The isolator damping ratios of 12% for horizontal and 5% for vertical directions are used. The acceleration responses in base isolated PWR superstructure with high damping rubber bearings are much smaller than those in fixed base structure in horizontal direction. However, the vertical acceleration responses at the superstructure in the base isolation system are amplified to some extent. It is suggested that the vertical seismic responses at the superstructure should be reduced by introducing a soft vertical isolation device.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.29-36
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• 2012

Involved in a research for the application of seismic isolation to the nuclear industry, this study evaluates firstly the responses of seismic isolation system considering general ranges of structural period and damping ratio by using preliminary design formula. Secondly, coupling effects of input motions were evaluated to find out appropriate conditions of excitations and effect of the iteration for calculating yield displacement of lead core was also assessed in terms of response of a seismically isolated structure. Finally, the results of preliminary design calculation were compared with those of dynamic analysis and the propriety of the formula was evaluated and appropriate ranges of reduction factor were also suggested from the results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.321-328
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• 2006

The paper describes the testing facilities and the methodology on testing of laminated rubber bearings envisaged for application in the system of Dynamic Damper (DD) of seismic isolated buildings, as well as the obtained results. For the first time in Armenia laminated rubber bearings were tested simultaneously under the action of horizontal shear force and vertical tension force. The test results have proven the possibility of using rubber bearings as elements subjected to tension due to action of the mass of DD. Also it was confirmed that the suggested structural concept of DD for reducing the displacements and shear forces of seismic isolation systems will have reliable behavior during the design level earthquakes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.791-803
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• 2012

Significant structural damages due to pounding between adjacent superstructures of multi-span reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridges have been observed in past earthquakes. Different methods have been proposed in the literature to mitigate the adverse seismic pounding effects. This paper presents an analytical investigation on the use of magnetorheological (MR) dampers in reducing seismic pounding effects of base-isolated multi-span RC highway bridges. It has been observed that MR damper can effectively reduce the seismic pounding effect. Three control strategies (passive off, passive on, and bang bang control) of MR damper have been investigated. Although all the control strategies are found to be effective, bang bang control has been observed to be the most effective.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

Seismic analyses of a pile under a large rigid basement foundation embedded in the homogeneous soil layer were performed practically by a response displacement method assuming a sinusoidal wave form. However, it is hard to take into account the characteristics of a large mat foundation and a heterogeneous soil layer with the response displacement method. The response displacement method is relevant to the 2D problems for longitudinal structures such as tunnel, underground cave structure, etc., but might not be relevant with isolated foundations for building structures. In this study, seismic pile analysis by a pseudo 3D finite element method was carried out to compare numerical results with results of the response displacement method considering 3D characteristics of a foundation-soil system which is important for the building foundation analyses. Study results show that seismic analyses results of a response displacement method are similar to those of a pseudo 3D numerical method for stiff and dense soil layers, but they are too conservative for a soft soil layer inducing large soil pressures on the foundation wall and large pile displacements due to ignored foundation rigidity and resistance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.103-118
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• 2017

In vertical seismic isolation (VSI), a building is partitioned intentionally by vertical layers into two dynamically different substructures for seismic response reduction. Initially, a 1-story frame was partitioned into two substructures, interconnected by viscous and visco-elastic links, and seismic responses of the original and the vertically isolated structures (VIS) were obtained, considering a large number of stiffness and mass ratios of substructures with respect to the original structure. Color contour graphs were defined for presentation and investigation of large amounts of output results. Dynamic characteristics of the isolated structures were studied by considering the non-classical damping of the system, and then the effects of viscous and visco-elastic link parameters on the modal damping ratios were discussed. On this basis, three states of mass isolation, interactional state, and control mass were differentiated. Response history analyses were performed by Runge-Kutta numerical method. In these analyses, interaction of isolation ratios and link parameters, on response control of VIS was studied and the appropriate ranges for link parameters as well as the optimal ranges for isolation ratios were suggested. Results show that by using the VSI technique, seismic response reduction up to 50% in flexible substructure and even more in stiff substructure is achievable.