• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.265-272
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• 2000

Unbond brace hysteretic dampers are generally used to prevent or decrease structural damage in buildings subjected to strong earthquake by its energy dissipating hysteretic behavior. According to a previous research, the optimum ratio of device yield strength to story yield strength of the combined system has been identified as the most important parameter for characterizing the performance of this device. In this research, the validity and the applicability of the previous research has been investigated and a new approach has been proposed through earthquake response analysis of a steel structure installed with unbond brace type hysteretic damper.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.453-462
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• 2018

Damages to buildings affected by a near-fault strong ground motion are largely attributed to the vertical component of the earthquake resulting in column failures, which could lead to disproportionate building catastrophic collapse in a progressive fashion. Recently, considerable interests are awakening to study effects of earthquake vertical components on structural responses. In this study, detailed modeling and time-history analyses of a 12-story code-conforming reinforced concrete moment frame building carrying the gravity loads, and exposed to once only the horizontal component of, and second time simultaneously the horizontal and vertical components of an ensemble of far-field and near-field earthquakes are conducted. Structural responses inclusive of tension, compression and its fluctuations in columns, the ratio of shear demand to capacity in columns and peak mid-span moment demand in beams are compared with and without the presence of the vertical component of earthquake records. The influences of the existence of earthquake vertical component in both exterior and interior spans are separately studied. Thereafter, the correlation between the increase of demands induced by the vertical component of the earthquake and the ratio of a set of earthquake record characteristic parameters is investigated. It is shown that uplift initiation and the magnitude of tensile forces developed in corner columns are relatively more critical. Presence of vertical component of earthquake leads to a drop in minimum compressive force and initiation of tension in columns. The magnitude of this reduction in the most critical case is recorded on average 84% under near-fault ground motions. Besides, the presence of earthquake vertical components increases the shear capacity required in columns, which is at most 31%. In the best case, a direct correlation of 95% between the increase of the maximum compressive force and the ratio of vertical to horizontal 'effective peak acceleration (EPA)' is observed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.1225-1234
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• 2009

As the Wenchuan Earthquake was of high magnitude and shallow seismic focus, it caused great damage and serious geo-hazards. By the field investigation and remote-sensing interpretation after the earthquake and by using means of GIS, the distribution of geo-hazards triggered by the earthquake was analyzed and the conclusions are as follows: (1) the earthquake geo-hazards showed the feature of zonal distribution along the earthquake fault zone and linear distribution along the rivers; (2) the distribution of earthquake geo-hazards had a marked hanging wall effect, for the development density of geo-hazards in the hanging wall of earthquake fault was obviously higher than that in the foot wall and the width of strong development zone in the hanging wall was about 10 km; (3) the topographical slope was a main factor which controlled the development of earthquake geo-hazards and a vast majority of geo-hazards were distributed on the slopes of 20 to 50 degrees; (4) the earthquake geo-hazards had a corresponding relationship with the elevation and micro-landform, for most hazards happened in the river valleys and canyon sections below the elevation of 1500 to 2000 m, particularly in the upper segment of canyon sections (namely, the turning point from the dale to the canyon). Thin ridge, isolated or full-face space mountains were most sensitive to the seismic wave, and had a striking amplifying effect. In these areas, collapses and landslides were most likely to develop; (5) the study also showed that different lithologies determined the types of geo-hazards, and usually, landslides occurred in soft rocks, while collapses occurred in hard rocks.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.401-412
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• 2016

On Tuesday, January 17, 1995, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck the Port of Kobe. In effect, the port was practically destroyed. After a hazard investigation, researchers reached a consensus to adopt a performance-based design in port and harbor structures in Japan. A residual displacement of geotechnical structures after an earthquake is one of the most important engineering demands in performance-based earthquake-resistant design. Thus, it is essential to provide reliable responses of geotechnical structures after an earthquake through various techniques. Today, a nonlinear explicit response history analysis(NERHA) of geotechnical structures is the most efficient way to achieve this goal. However, verification of the effective stress analysis, including post liquefaction behavior, is difficult to perform at a laboratory scale. This study aims to rigorously verify the NERHA by using well-defined field measurements, existing numerical tools, and constitutive models. The man-made, Port Island, in Kobe provides intensive hazard investigation data, strong motion records of 1995 Kobe earthquake, and sufficient engineering parameters of the soil. Two dimensional numerical analysis was conducted on the caisson quay wall section at Port Island subjected to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The analysis result matches very well with the hazard investigation data. The NERHA procedure presented in this paper can be used in further studies to explain and examine the effects of other factors on the seismic behavior of gravity quay walls in liquefiable soil areas.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.805-827
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• 2016

A new type of precast CFST column to RC beam braced frame is proposed in this paper. A series of shake table tests were conducted to excite a one-third scale six-story model for investigating the global seismic performance of this type of structure against earthquake actions. Particular emphasis was given to its dynamic property, global seismic responses and failure path. Correspondingly, a numerical model built on the basis of fiber-beam-element model, multi-layer shell model and element-deactivation method was developed to simulate the seismic performance of the prototype structure. Numerical results were compared with the measured values from shake table tests to verify the validity and reliability of the numerical model. The results demonstrated that the proposed novel precast CFST column to RC beam braced frame performs excellently under strong earthquake excitations; the "strong CFST column-weak RC beam" and "strong connection-weak member" anti-seismic design principles can be easily achieved; the maximum deflections of precast CFSTC-RCB braced frame satisfied the deflection limitations proposed in national code; the numerical model can properly simulate the dynamic property and responses of the precast CFSTC-RCB braced frame that are highly concerned in engineering practice.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.983-997
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• 2015

This research evaluates the soil conditions for seismic stations situated in Romania using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR). The strong ground motion database assembled for this study consists of 179 analogue and digital strong ground motion recordings from four intermediate-depth Vrancea seismic events with $M_w{\geq}6.0$. In the first step of the analysis, the influence of the earthquake magnitude and source-to-site distance on the H/V curves is evaluated. Significant influences from both the earthquake magnitude and hypocentral distance are found especially for soil class A sites. Next, a site classification method proposed in the literature is applied for each seismic station and the soil classes are compared with those obtained from borehole data and from the topographic slope method. In addition, the success and error rates of this method are computed and compared with other studies from the literature. A more in-depth analysis of the H/V results is performed using data from seismic stations in Bucharest and a comparison of the free-field and borehole H/V curves is done for three seismic stations. The results show large differences between the free-field and the borehole curves. As a conclusion, the results from this study represent an intermediary step in the evaluation of the soil conditions for seismic stations in Romania and the need to perform more detailed soil classification analysis is highly emphasized.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.445-458
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• 2019

This study mainly aims to assess the performance of soil-structure systems designed by direct displacement-based method coupled with strong column-weak beam design concept through various system identification techniques under strong ground motions. To this end, various system identification methods are employed to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of a structure (i.e., modal frequency, system damping, mode shapes, and plastic hinge formation pattern) under a strong seismic excitation considering soil-structure interaction for different site conditions as specified by ASCE 7-10. The scope of the study narrowed down to the code-complying low- to high-rise steel moment resisting frames with various heights (4, 8, 12, 16-story). The comparison of the result of soil-structure systems with fix-based support condition indicates that the modal frequencies of these systems are highly influenced by the structure heights, specifically for the softer soils. This trend is more significant for higher modes of the system which can considerably dominate the response of structures in which the higher modes have more contribution in dynamic response. Amongst all studied modes of the vibration, the damping ratio estimated for the first mode is relatively the closet to the initial assumed damping ratios. Moreover, it was found that fewer plastic hinges are developed in the structure of soil-structure systems with a softer soil which contradicts the general expectation of higher damageability of such structural systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.153-184
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• 2015

Most damaging earthquakes come as complex sequences characterized by strong aftershocks, sometimes by foreshocks and often by multiple mainshocks. Complex earthquake sequences have enormous seismic hazard, engineering and societal implications as their impact on buildings and infrastructures may be much more severe at the end of the sequence than just after the mainshock. In this paper we examine whether historical sources can help characterizing the rare earthquake sequences of pre-instrumental times in full, including fore-, main- and aftershocks. Thanks to the its huge documentary heritage, Italy relies on one of the richest parametric earthquake catalogues worldwide. Unfortunately most current methods for assessing seismic hazard require that earthquake catalogues be declustered by removing all shocks that bear some dependency with those identified as mainshocks. We maintain that this requirement has led most modern historical seismologists to focus mainly on mainshocks rather than also on the fore- and aftershocks. To shed light onto major earthquake sequences of the past, rather than onto individual mainshocks, we investigated 10 damaging earthquake sequences ($M_w$ 4.7-7.0) that hit the L'Aquila area and central Abruzzo from the 14th to the 20th century. We find that most of the results of historical research are important for modern seismology, yet their rendering by the current parametric catalogues causes most information to be lost or not easily transferred to the potential users. For this reason we advocate a change in current strategies and the creation of a more flexible standard for storing and using all the information made available by historical seismology.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.3-11
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• 2019

The recent earthquake of Pohang (M5.4) and the Gyeongju earthquake (M5.8) suggested the possibility of a strong earthquake in Korea and reminded us that the Korea is no longer an earthquake-safe zone. In the disaster recovery stage in a disaster like an earthquake, the investigation of the damage situation and the safety assessment of the building serve to provide important information for the initial action such as establishment of the recovery strategy and rescue of the survivor. However, the research that depends on manpower can not cope with the difficulty of processing a large number of doses in a short time, and the expertise of the manpower must be taken into consideration, which may result in delayed initial action. In this study, we propose an rapid safety evaluation technique of building using unmanned aerial vehicle which evaluates the performance and safety of buildings by integrating conventional safety inspection method with unmanned aerial vehicle technology and developed evaluation method of each evaluation factor. In order to verify this, the buildings damaged by the earthquake in Pohang were checked and compared using this system. The results are consistent with the results of the existing emergency earthquake risk assessment. As a result, the possibility of checking the emergency safety using the unmanned aerial vehicle for the damaged structures in case of a large-scale disaster such as an earthquake was confirmed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.59-69
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• 2021

Historical records of earthquakes are generally used as a basis to extrapolate the instrumental earthquake catalog in time and space during the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). However, the historical catalogs' input parameters determined through historical descriptions rather than any quantitative measurements are accompanied by considerable uncertainty in PSHA. Therefore, quantitative assessment to verify the historical earthquake parameters is essential for refining the reliability of PSHA. This study presents an approach and its application to constrain reliable ranges of the magnitude and corresponding epicenter of historical earthquakes. First, ranges rather than specific values of ground motion intensities are estimated at multiple locations with distances between each other for selected historical earthquakes by reviewing observed co-seismic natural phenomena, structural damage levels, or felt areas described in their historical records. Based on specific objective criteria, this study selects only one earthquake (July 24, 1643), which is potentially one of the largest historical earthquakes. Then, ground motion simulations are performed for sufficiently broadly distributed epicenters, with a regular grid to prevent one from relying on strong assumptions. Calculated peak ground accelerations and velocities in areas with the historical descriptions on corresponding earthquakes are converted to intensities with an empirical ground motion-intensity conversion equation to compare them with historical descriptions. For the ground motion simulation, ground motion prediction equations and a frequency-wavenumber method are used to consider the effects of possible source mechanisms and stress drop. From these quantitative calculations, reliable ranges of epicenters and magnitudes and the trade-off between them are inferred for the earthquake that can conservatively match the upper and lower boundaries of intensity values from historical descriptions.