• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.922-929
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• 2019

This paper presents the drop performance test of the control rod assembly which is one of the main components strongly related to the safety of the prototype generation IV sodium-cooled fast reactor. To investigate the drop performance, a real-sized control rod assembly that was recently modified based on the drop analysis results was newly fabricated, and several free drop tests under different flow rate conditions were carried out. Then the results were compared with those obtained from the previous tests conducted on the conceptually designed control rod assembly to demonstrate the improvement in performance. Moreover, the drop performance tests under several types and magnitudes of seismic loadings were also conducted to investigate the effect of the seismic loading on the drop performance of the modified control rod assembly. The results showed that the effects of the type and magnitude of the seismic loading on the drop performance of the modified control rod assembly were not significant. Also, the drop time requirement was successfully satisfied, even under the seismic loading conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.245-253
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• 2017

The relative displacement of a piping system installed between isolated and nonisolated structures in a severe earthquake might be larger when without a seismic isolation system. As a result of the relative displacement, the seismic risks of some components in the building could increase. The possibility of an increase in seismic risks is especially high in the crossover piping system in the buildings. Previous studies found that an elbow which could be ruptured by low-cycle ratcheting fatigue is one of the weakest elements. Fatigue curves for elbows were suggested based on component tests. However, it is hard to find a quantitative evaluation of the ultimate state of piping elbows. Generally, the energy dissipation of a solid structure can be calculated from the relation between displacement and force. Therefore, in this study, the ultimate state of the pipe elbow, normally considered as failure of the pipe elbow, is defined as leakage under in-plane cyclic loading tests, and a failure estimation method is proposed using a damage index based on energy dissipation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2022

The optimum design of reinforced concrete cantilever retaining walls subjected to seismic loads is an extremely important challenge in structural and geotechnical engineering, especially in seismic zones. This study proposes an adaptive sperm swarm optimization algorithm (ASSO) for economic design of retaining structure under static and seismic loading. The proposed ASSO algorithm utilizes a time-varying velocity damping factor to provide a fine balance between the explorative and exploitative behavior of the original method. In addition, the new method considers a reasonable velocity limitation to avoid the divergence of the sperm movement. The proposed algorithm is benchmarked with a set of test functions and the results are compared with the standard sperm swarm optimization (SSO) and some other robust metaheuristic from the literature. For seismic optimization of retaining structures, Mononobe-Okabe method is employed for dynamic loading conditions and total construction cost of the structure is considered as the single objective function. The optimization constraints include both geotechnical and structural restrictions and the design variables are the geometrical dimensions of the wall and the amount of steel reinforcement. Finally, optimization of two benchmark retaining structures under static and seismic loads using the ASSO algorithm is presented. According to the numerical results, the ASSO may provide better optimal solutions, and the designs obtained by ASSO have a lower cost by up to 20% compared with some other methods from the literature.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.5 no.3 s.18
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• pp.11-21
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• 2005

This study is performed to understand complex behavior and to investigate the rational analysis methods for seismic design of the curved bridges. To analyze the curved bridges for the seismic loadings, it is used that the finite element analysis program has the 7-dof curved beam and straight beam element. The free vibration characteristics of the curved bridges are compared with the straight bridges that have span length same as the average arc length of inside and outside girder of those. For the same case, the dynamic behavior is compared under seismic loadings. It is found that regular bridges classified by AASHTO are analyzed as if those were straight. To investigate the dynamic behavior of general curved bridges under seismic loading, the seismic loading directions and the subtended angle of curved bridges are varied.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2019

The use of non-linear analysis of structures in a functional way for evaluating the structural seismic behavior has attracted the attention of the engineering community in recent years. The most commonly used functional method for analysis is a non-linear static method known as the "pushover method". In this study, for the first time, a cyclic pushover analysis with different loading protocols was used for seismic investigation of curved bridges. The finite element model of 8-span curved bridges in plan created by the ZEUS-NL software was used for evaluating different pushover methods. In order to identify the optimal loading protocol for use in astatic non-linear cyclic analysis of curved bridges, four loading protocols (suggested by valid references) were used. Along with cyclic analysis, conventional analysis as well as adaptive pushover analysis, with proven capabilities in seismic evaluation of buildings and bridges, have been studied. The non-linear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method has been used to examine and compare the results of pushover analyses. To conduct IDA, the time history of 20 far-field earthquake records was used and the 50% fractile values of the demand given the ground motion intensity were computed. After analysis, the base shear vs displacement at the top of the piers were drawn. Obtained graphs represented the ability of a cyclic pushover analysis to estimate seismic capacity of the concrete piers of curved bridges. Based on results, the cyclic pushover method with ISO loading protocol provided better results for evaluating the seismic investigation of concrete piers of curved bridges in plan.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.91-105
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• 2006

In this paper, post-earthquake capacity evaluation method of reinforced concrete buildings was studied. Substructure pseudo-dynamic test and static loading test of first story column in a four-story R/C building was carried out in order to investigate the validity of the evaluation method proposed in the Damage Assessment Guideline (JBDPA 2001). In pseudo-dynamic test, different levels of damage were induced in the specimens by pre-loading, and input levels of seismic motion, at which the specimens reached to the ultimate stage, were examined. From the experimental result, no significant difference in damage levels such as residual crack width between the specimens under static and pseudo-dynamic loading was found. It is shown that the seismic capacity reduction factors ${\eta}$ can provide a reasonable estimation of post-earthquake seismic capacity of R/C buildings suffered earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.691-704
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• 2014

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls are commonly used for building structures to resist seismic loading. While the RC shear walls can have a high load-carrying capacity, they tend to fail in a brittle mode under shear, accompanied by forming large diagonal cracks and bond splitting between concrete and steel reinforcement. Improving seismic performance of shear walls has remained a challenge for researchers all over the world. Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC), featuring incredible ductility under tension, can be a promising material to replace concrete in shear walls with improved performance. Currently, the application of ECC to large structures is limited due to the lack of the proper constitutive models especially under shear. In this paper, a new Cyclic Softening Membrane Model for reinforced ECC is proposed. The model was built upon the Cyclic Softening Membrane Model for reinforced concrete by (Hsu and Mo 2010). The model was then implemented in the OpenSees program to perform analysis on several cases of shear walls under seismic loading. The seismic response of reinforced ECC compared with RC shear walls under monotonic and cyclic loading, their difference in pinching effect and energy dissipation capacity were studied. The modeling results revealed that reinforced ECC shear walls can have superior seismic performance to traditional RC shear walls.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2019

This paper presents an experimental study on a 1/2 scale steel frame with archaized-style under the pseudo-dynamic loading. Four seismic waves, including El Centro wave, Taft wave, Lanzhou wave and Wenchuan wave, were input during the test. The hysteresis characteristic, energy dissipation acceleration response, displacement response, strength, stiffness and strain were analyzed. Based on the experiment, the elastoplastic dynamic time-history analysis was carried out with the software ABAQUS. The stress distribution and failure mode were obtained. The results indicate that the steel frame with archaized-style was in elastic stage when the peak acceleration of input wave was no more than 400 gal. Under Wenchuan wave with peak acceleration of 620 gal, the steel frame enters into the elastoplastic stage, the maximum inter-story drift was 1/203 and the bearing capacity still tended to increase. During the loading process, Dou-Gong yielded first and played the role of the first seismic fortification line, and then beam ends and column bottom ends yielded in turn. The steel frame with archaized-style has good seismic performance and meets the seismic design requirement of Chinese code.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.555-572
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• 2015

This paper presents an experimental study of three two-dimensional (2D/planar) steel reinforced concrete (SRC) T-shaped column-RC beam hybrid joints and six 3D SRC T-shaped column-steel beam hybrid joints under low cyclic reversed loads. Considering different categories of steel configuration types in column cross section and horizontal loading angles for the specimens were selected, and a reliable structural testing system for the spatial loading was employed in the tests. The load-displacement curves, carrying capacity, energy dissipation capacity, ductility and deformation characteristics of the test subassemblies were analyzed. Especially, the seismic performance discrepancies between planar hybrid joints and 3D hybrid joints were intensively compared. The failure modes for planar loading and spatial loading observed in the tests showed that the shear-diagonal compressive failure was the dominating failure mode for all the specimens. In addition, the 3D hybrid joints illustrated plumper hysteretic loops for the columns configured with solid-web steel, but a little more pinched hysteretic loops for the columns configured with T-shaped steel or channel-shaped steel, better energy dissipation capacity & ductility, and larger interlayer deformation capacity than those of the planar hybrid joints. Furthermore, it was revealed that the hysteretic loops for the specimens under $45^{\circ}$ loading angle are generally plumper than those for the specimens under $30^{\circ}$ loading angle. Finally, the effects of steel configuration type and loading angle on the seismic damage for the specimens were analyzed by means of the Park-Ang model.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.613-628
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• 2016

The effectiveness of the use of modern repair schemes for the seismic retrofit of existing RC structures were assessed on a comparative experimental study of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips and sheets for the repair of reinforced concrete members of RC frames, damaged because of cyclic loading. Two virgin, single - story, one - bay, 1/3 - scale frame specimens were tested under cyclic horizontal loading, up to a drift level of 4%. Then, virgin specimens, B and F, respectively, were repaired and retested in the same way. One, specimen RB, was repaired with epoxy injections and CFRP strips and one, specimen RF, was repaired with epoxy injections and CFRP sheets. The two specimens are used to examine the differences between the structural behavior of frames repaired using CFRP strips and frames repaired using CFRP sheets. Both qualitative and quantitative conclusions, based on the observed maximum loads, loading and reloading stiffness, hysteretic energy absorption and failure mechanisms are presented and compared. The repaired frames recovered their strength, stiffness and energy dissipated reasonably. The use of CFRP sheets was found more effective than CFRP strips, due to the proper anchorage.