• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.395-408
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• 2019

Engineered structures built in seismic-prone areas are affected by aftershocks in addition to mainshocks. Although aftershocks generally are lower in magnitude than that of the mainshocks, some aftershocks may have higher intensities; thus, structures should be able to withstand the effect of strong aftershocks as well. This seismic scenario arises for far-field mainshock along with near-field aftershocks. In this study, four 2D reinforced concrete (RC) frames with different numbers of stories were designed in accordance with the current Iranian seismic design code. As a way to evaluate the seismic response of the case-study RC frames, the inter-story drift ratio (IDR) demand, the residual inter-story drift ratio (RIDR) demand, the Park-Ang damage index, and the period elongation ratio can be useful engineering demand parameters for evaluating their seismic performance under mainshock-aftershock sequences. The frame models were analyzed under a set of far-field mainshock, near-fault aftershocks seismic sequences using nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis to investigate the relationship among IDR, RIDR, Park-Ang damage index and period ratio experienced by the frames. The results indicate that the growth of IDR, RIDR, Park-Ang damage index, and period ratio in high-rise and short structures under near-fault aftershocks were significant. It is evident that engineers should consider the effects of near-fault aftershocks on damaged frames that experience far-field mainshocks as well.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.303-316
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• 2024

Seismic records are composed of mainshock and a series of aftershocks which often result in the incremental damage to underground structures and bring great challenges to the rescue of post-disaster and the repair of post-earthquake. In this paper, the repetition method was used to construct the mainshock-aftershocks sequence which was used as the input ground motion for the analysis of dynamic time history. Based on the Daikai station, the two-dimensional finite element model of soil-station was established to explore the failure process of station under different seismic precautionary intensities, and the concept of incremental damage of station was introduced to quantitatively analyze the damage condition of structure under the action of mainshock and two aftershocks. An arc rubber bearing was proposed for the shock absorption. With the arc rubber bearing, the mode of the traditional column end connection was changed from "fixed connection" to "hinged joint", and the ductility of the structure was significantly improved. The results show that the damage condition of the subway station is closely related to the magnitude of the mainshock. When the magnitude of the mainshock is low, the incremental damage to the structure caused by the subsequent aftershocks is little. When the magnitude of the mainshock is high, the subsequent aftershocks will cause serious incremental damage to the structure, and may even lead to the collapse of the station. The arc rubber bearing can reduce the damage to the station. The results can offer a reference for the seismic design of subway stations under the action of mainshock-aftershocks.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.767-781
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• 2012

The residual capacity against collapse of a main shock-damaged bridge can be coupled with the aftershock ground motion hazard to make an objective decision on its probability of collapse in aftershocks. In this paper, a steel tower suspension bridge with a main span of 2000 m is adopted for a case-study. Seismic responses of the bridge in longitudinal and transversal directions are analyzed using dynamic elasto-plastic finite displacement theory. The analysis is conducted in two stages: main shock and aftershocks. The ability of the main shock-damaged bridge to resist aftershocks is discussed. Results show that the damage caused by accumulated plastic strain can be ignored in the long-span suspension bridge. And under longitudinal and transversal seismic excitations, the damage is prone to occur at higher positions of the tower and the shaft-beam junctions. When aftershocks are not large enough to cause plastic strain in the structure, the aftershock excitation can be ignored in the seismic damage analysis of the bridge. It is also found that the assessment of seismic damage can be determined by superposition of damage under independent action of seismic excitations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.641-652
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• 2019

This paper investigates the effect of aftershocks on the seismic performance of self-centering (SC) prestressed concrete frames using the probabilistic seismic demand analysis methodology. For this purpose, a 4-story SC concrete frame and a conventional reinforced concrete (RC) frame are designed and numerically analyzed through nonlinear dynamic analyses based on a set of as-recorded mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. The peak and residual story drifts are selected as the demand parameters. The probabilistic seismic demand models of the SC and RC frames are compared, and the SC frame is found to have less dispersion of peak and residual story drifts. The results of drift demand hazard analyses reveal that the SC frame experiences lower peak story drift hazards and significantly reduced residual story drift hazards than the RC frame when subjected to the mainshocks only or the mainshock-aftershock sequences, which demonstrates the advantages of the SC frame over the RC frame. For both the SC and RC frames, the influence of as-recorded aftershocks on the drift demand hazards is small. It is shown that artificial aftershocks can produce notably increased drift demand hazards of the RC frame, while the incremental effect of artificial aftershocks on the drift demand hazards of the SC frame is much smaller. It is also found that aftershock polarity does not influence the drift demand hazards of both the SC and RC frames.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2018

A large main shock may consist of numerous aftershocks with a short period. The aftershocks induced by a large main shock can cause the collapse of a structure that has been already damaged by the preceding main shock. These aftershocks are important factors in structural damages. Furthermore, despite what is often assumed in seismic design codes, earthquakes do not usually occur as a single event, but as a series of strong aftershocks and even fore shocks. For this reason, this study investigates the effect and potential of consecutive earthquakes on the response and behavior of concrete structures. At first, six moment resisting concrete frames with 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 and 15 stories are designed and analyzed under two different records with seismic sequences from real and artificial cases. The damage states of the model frames were then measured by the Park and Ang's damage index. From the results of this investigation, it is observed that the sequences of ground motions can almost double the accumulated damage and increased response of structures. Therefore, it is certainly insufficient to ignore this effect in the design procedure of structures. Also, the use of artificial seismic sequences as design earthquake can lead to non-conservative prediction of behavior and damage of structures under real seismic sequences.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.3397-3404
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• 2024

The shield building of the AP1000 nuclear power plant serves as a crucial protective barrier against radioactive substances. However, past research indicates that structures are susceptible to experiencing aftershocks, which may lead to unforeseeable damage and potential radioactive material leakage. To address this issue, a finite element model of the shield building was established with the damage indexes of the tensile and compressive damage selected for further model analysis. According to the fundamental theory of reliability, the traditional incremental dynamic analysis method was used to analyze the seismic fragility of the shield building by inputting mainshock and aftershock sequences with three strength ratios. The results indicate that the seismic fragility of shield building may be underestimated without considering the influence of aftershocks and the damage state presents an upward tendency as the strength ratio increases. However, the cumulative damage caused by aftershocks is unlikely to exceed the initial damage induced by the corresponding mainshock. Overall, the aggravation of the compressive damage is less pronounced than the increase of the tensile damage as the strength ratio increases.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.303-316
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• 2023

Rapid post-earthquake damage estimation of subway stations is particularly necessary to improve short-term crisis management and safety measures of urban subway systems after a destructive earthquake. The conventional Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) framework with constant earthquake occurrence rate is invalid to estimate the aftershock risk because of the time-varying rate of aftershocks and the uncertainty of mainshock-damaged state before the occurrence of aftershocks. This study presents a time-varying probabilistic seismic risk assessment framework for underground structures considering mainshock and aftershock hazards. A discrete non-omogeneous Markov process is adopted to quantify the time-varying nature of aftershock hazard and the uncertainties of structural damage states following mainshock. The time-varying seismic risk of a typical rectangular frame subway station is assessed under mainshock-only (MS) hazard and mainshock-aftershock (MSAS) hazard. The results show that the probabilities of exceeding same limit states over the service life under MSAS hazard are larger than the values under MS hazard. For the same probability of exceedance, the higher response demands are found when aftershocks are considered. As the severity of damage state for the station structure increases, the difference of the probability of exceedance increases when aftershocks are considered. PSDR=1.0% is used as the collapse prevention performance criteria for the subway station is reasonable for both the MS hazard and MSAS hazard. However, if the effect of aftershock hazard is neglected, it can significantly underestimate the response demands and the uncertainties of potential damage states for the subway station over the service life.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2024

After the mainshock, whether the train can be allowed to pass the bridges plays an important role in ensuring the transport of supplies and rescue works for example, in the "12 May" earthquake in China, after evaluation, the bridge was still used for transportation in rescue at a very slow speed, engineers usually evaluate whether the train can pass the bridge safely based on the experience, lacks sufficient calculation basis and does not fully consider the risk caused by aftershocks. To address this issue, this paper comprehensively considers the randomness of track irregularity, the randomness of aftershock intensity and other multiple random sources in train-bridge interaction system (TBIS). The sensitivity of train to various random parameters after earthquake is analyzed from the perspective of probability, the most sensitive random variable in this paper is PGA of aftershocks, both for bridge and trailer car, With the increase of epicentral distance, the sensitivity of PGA will decrease, and correspondingly, for trailer car, the sensitivity of other random variables will increase, research in this paper provides a basis for the subsequent random analysis of post-earthquake driving safety.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.342-348
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• 2018

An earthquake of $M_L$ 5.8 hit the Gyeongju area on September 12, 2016. A sequence of foreshock-mainshock-aftershock of 588 events with equal to or greater than magnitude 1.5 occurred for six months in this area. Around ninety-nine percentage (98.8%) of the total energy was released intensively within a day, and about 80% of the total events took place within a month after the Gyeongju earthquake. The epicentral distribution of aftershocks of major events ($M_L$ 5.1, 5.8, 4.5, and 3.5) were elongated in the direction of $N30^{\circ}E$. They correlate well with the focal mechanism solution. These facts support the inference that the Gyeongju earthquakes occurred on a sub-parallel subsidiary fault of the Yangsan fault zone or on the linking damage zones between Deokcheon and Yangsan fault. During the last six years before the Gyeongju earthquake, there were few events within 10-km radius from the epicenter. This seismic gap area was filled with a sequence of the Gyeongju earthquakes. The b value for aftershock of the Gyeongju earthquakes is 1.09.