• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 1985

Events detected by the KIER microearthquake network operated in the Southern Part of Korea for 265 days in 1982~1984 were reviewed, and some of them were identified to be a dynamite explosion from several construction sites. The purpose of the present work is to determine the crustal structure of the Southern Korea using the time-destance data obtained from such explosion seismic records. The time·distance data can be well explained by a crustal model composed of four horizontal layers of which thickness, p and s-wave velocity ($V_p$ and $V_s$) are characterized as follows. 1st layer (surface) ; 0~2km, $V_p=5.5km/sec$, $V_s=3.3km/sec$ 2nd layer (upper crust) ; 2~15km, $V_p=6.0km/sec$, $V_s=3.5km/sec$ 3rd layer (lower crust) ; 15~29km, $V_p=6.6km/sec$, $V_s=3.7km/sec$ 4th layer (upper mantle) ; 29km~ , $V_p=7.7km/sec$, $V_s=4.3km/sec$ The relatively shallow crust·mantle boundary and low $P_n$ velocity compared with the mean values for stable intraplate region are noteworthy. Supposedely, it is responsible for the high heat flow in the South-eastern Korea or an anomalous subterranean mantle. The mean $V_p/V_s$ ratio calculated from the relation between p-wave arrival and s-p arrival times appears to be 1.735 which is nearly equivalent to the elastic medium of ${\lambda}={\mu}$. However, the ratio tends to be slightly larger with the depth. The ratio is rather high compared with that of the adjacent Japanese Island, and the fact suggests that the underlying crust and upper mantle in this region are more ductile and hence the earthquake occurrences are apt to be interrupted. As an alternative curstal model, a seismic velocity structure in which velocities are successively increased with the depth is also proposed by the inversion of the time·distance data. With the velocity profile, it is possible to calculate a travel time table which is appropriate to determine the earthquake parameters for the local events.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.657-671
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• 2023

As large-scale earthquakes have occurred in Korea and their aftermath continues to be felt, laws and regulations on seismic design have been emphasized, and in Korea, the seismic design standards have been newly revised after the Gyeongju earthquake. In the revised seismic design standards, a stability review for the destruction of the support activity of the breakwater was newly added. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a stability analysis on the seismic reinforcement method for the study site, and checked the ground acceleration of the subgrade and the displacement of the structure over time. As a result of the stability analysis, the safety factor increased by at least 0.5 and up to 1.7. As a result of the time history analysis, the displacement of the superstructure decreased by up to 290 mm and down to 12 mm in both the shallow and deep sections before and after reinforcement, and the ground acceleration decreased by up to 5.33 m/s and down to 0.31 m/s after reinforcement.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.236-247
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• 2009

Overpopulation has significantly increased the use of underground spaces in urban areas, and led to the developments of shallow-depth underground space. Due to unexpected rock fall, however, it is very necessary to understand and categorize the rock mass behaviors prior to the tunnel excavation, by which unnecessary casualties and economic loss could be prevented. In case of cave-in, special attention should be drawn since it occurs faster and greater in magnitude compared to rock fall and plastic deformation. Types of cave-in behavior are explained and categorized using seven parameters - Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS), Rock Quality Designation (RQD), joint surface condition, in-situ stress condition, ground water condition, earthquake & ground vibration, tunnel span. This study eventually introduces a new index called Cave-in Behavior Index (CBI) which explains the behavior of cave-in under given in-situ conditions expressed by the seven parameters. In order to assess the mutual interactions of the seven parameters and to evaluate the weighting factors for all the interactions, survey data of the experts' opinions and Rock Engineering Systems (RES) were used due to lack of field observations. CBI was applied to the tunnel site of Seoul Metro Line No. 9. UDEC analyses on 288 cases were done and occurrences of cave-in in every simulation were examined. Analyses on the results of 288 cases of simulations revealed that the average CBI for the cases when cave-in for different patterns of tunnel support was estimated by a logistic regression analysis.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.367-374
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• 2019

We investigate the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the response of LNG storage tanks to vertical seismic excitation depending on the type of foundation. An LNG storage tank with a diameter of 71 m on a clay layer with a thickness of 30 m upon bedrock, was selected as an example. The nonlinear behavior of the soil was considered in an equivalent linear method. Four types of foundation were considered, including shallow, piled raft, and pile foundations (surface and floating types). In addition, the effect of soil compaction within the group pile on the seismic response of the tank was investigated. KIESSI-3D, an analysis package in the frequency domain, was used to study the SSI and the stress in the outer tank was calculated. Based on an analysis of the numerical results, we arrived at three main conclusions: (1) for a shallow foundation, the vertical stress in the outer tank is less than the fixed base response due to the SSI effect; (2) for foundations supported by piles, the vertical stress can be greater than the fixed base stress due to the increase in the vertical impedance due to the piles and the decrease in radiation damping; and (3) soil compaction had a miniscule impact on the seismic response of the outer tank.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.599-622
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• 2013

Seismic response of two dimensional liquid tanks is numerically simulated using fully nonlinear velocity potential theory. Galerkin-weighted-residual based finite element method is used for solving the governing Laplace equation with fully nonlinear free surface boundary conditions and also for velocity recovery. Based on mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian (MEL) method, fourth order explicit Runge-Kutta scheme is used for time integration of free surface boundary conditions. A cubic-spline fitted regridding technique is used at every time step to eliminate possible numerical instabilities on account of Lagrangian node induced mesh distortion. An artificial surface damping term is used which mimics the viscosity induced damping and brings in numerical stability. Four earthquake motions have been suitably selected to study the effect of frequency content on the dynamic response of tank-liquid system. The nonlinear seismic response vis-a-vis linear response of rectangular liquid tank has been studied. The impulsive and convective components of hydrodynamic forces, e.g., base shear, overturning base moment and pressure distribution on tank-wall are quantified. It is observed that the convective response of tank-liquid system is very much sensitive to the frequency content of the ground motion. Such sensitivity is more pronounced in shallow tanks.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.268-277
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• 2019

Severe damages will result in human society, when several different critical natural phenomena coincide. One example relates to the resting cysts of Alexandrium species (dinoflagellates that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning), which are preserved in surface sediments throughout Osaka Bay, Japan. These cysts have been found to accumulate particularly densely in shallow areas in the inner parts of Osaka Bay, where a tsunami caused by an earthquake could occur any time. Damage by a tsunami could cause a change of the coastal ecosystems at Osaka Bay including the resuspension of surface sediments containing resting Alexandrium tamarense cysts and the subsequent redistribution of the cysts in newly deposited sediment. Under certain environmental conditions, these cysts could germinate and form dense blooms, leading to paralytic shellfish poisoning. Such a scenario could also affect other coastal areas, including the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.3_4
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• pp.573-591
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• 2004

A hybrid control system is presented for seismic-resistant building structures with and without soil-structure interaction (SSI). The hybrid control is a damper-actuator-bracing control system composed of passive and active controllers. An intelligent algorithm is developed for the hybrid system, in which the passive damper is designed for minor and moderate earthquakes and the active control is designed to activate when the structural response is greater than a given threshold quantity. Thus, the external energy for active controller can be optimally utilized. In the control of a multistory building, the controller placement is determined by evaluating the optimal location index (OLI) calculated from six earthquake sources. In the study, the soil-structure interaction is considered both in frequency domain and time domain analyses. It is found that the interaction can significantly affect the control effectiveness. In the hybrid control algorithm with intelligent strategy, the working stages of passive and active controllers can be different for a building with and without considering SSI. Thus SSI is essential to be included in predicting the response history of a controlled structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2012

An empirical predictive relationship correlating bracketed duration to earthquake magnitude, site-to-source distance, and local site conditions (i.e. rock vs. stiff soil) for stable continental regions of North America is presented herein. The correlation was developed from data from 620 horizontal motions for central and eastern North America (CENA), consisting of 28 recorded motions and 592 scaled motions. The bracketed duration data was comprised of nonzero and zero durations. The non-linear mixed-effects regression technique was used to fit a predictive model to the nonzero duration data. To account for the zero duration data, logistic regression was conducted to model the probability of zero duration occurrences. Then, the probability models were applied as weighting functions to the NLME regression results. Comparing the bracketed durations for CENA motions with those from active shallow crustal regions (e.g. western North America: WNA), the motions in CENA have longer bracketed durations than those in the WNA. Especially for larger magnitudes at far distances, the bracketed durations in CENA tend to be significantly longer than those in WNA.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2020

Studying the critical response characteristics of box culverts with diverse geometrical configurations under seismic excitations is a necessary step to develop a reasonable design method. In this work, a numerical parametric study is conducted on various soil-culvert systems, aiming to highlight the critical difference in the seismic performances between three- and four-sided culverts. Two-dimensional numerical models consider a variety of burial depths, flexibility ratios and foundation widths, assuming a visco-elastic soil condition, which permits to compare with the analytical solutions and previous studies. The results show that flexible three-sided culverts at a shallow depth considerably amplify the spectral acceleration and Arias intensity. Larger racking deformation and rocking rotation are also predicted for the three-sided culverts, but the bottom slab influence decreases with increasing burial depth and foundation width. The bottom slab combined with the burial depth and structural stiffness also significantly influences the magnitude and distribution of the dynamic earth pressure. The findings of this work shed light on the critical role of the bottom slab in the seismic responses of box culverts and may have a certain reference value for the preliminary seismic design using R-F relation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.777-784
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• 2010

In the current Korean seismic design guide, the site classification and the corresponding site coefficients were determined based on the UBC-1997 (Uniform Building Code). In order to develop the current site classification system, it is important to compare the local site conditions in Korea to other countries which have similar seismic design guides. In the eastern United States, New York City(40degrees 45minutes north latitude, 73degrees 59minutes west longitude) suggested that current design guidelines are unsuitable to shallow bedrock depth sites. So the 3-parameter methods are performed for new criteria in New York City. In this study, site response analyses were performed at 181 study sites using one-dimensional equivalent linear to evaluate the site-specific earthquake ground motions at inland areas in the Korean peninsula and reclassify the results according to similar ground motions using the 3-parameter methods. It is effective that multi-parameter methods for Korean site characteristics in comparison with single parameter method.