• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.57-74
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• 2013

In this study, the virtual fixed point analysis and 3D full-modeling analysis for pile bent structures are conducted by considering various influencing factors and the applicability of the virtual fixed point theory is discussed. Also, a discrete analysis calculating separately both the superstructure and substructure of pile bent structures is performed on the basis of an equivalent base spring model by taking into account the major influencing parameters such as soil conditions, combined loading and pile diameter. The results show that the settlement and lateral deflection of the virtual fixed point theory are smaller than those of 3D full-modeling analysis. On the other hand, the virtual fixed point analysis overestimates the axial force and bending moment compared with 3D full-modeling analysis. It is shown that the virtual fixed point analysis cannot adequately predict the real behavior of pile bent structures. It is also found that discrete analysis gives similar results of lateral deflection and bending moment to those of unified analysis. Based on this study, it is found that discrete analysis considering column-pile interaction conditions is capable of predicting reasonably well the behavior of pile bent structures. It can be effectively used to perform a more economical design of pile bent structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2004

Due to the 1989 Loma Prieta, 1995 Hyogoken Nambu earthquakes, etc, a number of bridge columns  were collapsed in flexure-shear failures as a consequence of the premature termination of the column longitudinal reinforcement. Nevertheless, previous researches for the performance of bridge columns were concentrated on the flexural failure mode. It is well understood that the seismic behaviour of RC bridge piers was dependent on the performance of the plastic hinge of RC bridge piers, the ductility of which was desirable to be computed on the basis of the curvature. Experimental investigation was made to evaluate the variation of the curvature of the plastic hinge  region for the seismic performance of earthquake-damaged RC columns in flexure-shear failure mode. Seven test specimens in the aspect ratio of 2.5 were made with test parameters: confinement ratios, lap splices, and retrofitting FRP materials. They were damaged under series of artificial earthquakes that could be compatible in Korean peninsula. Directly after the pseudo-dynamic test, damaged columns were retested under inelastic reversal cyclic loading under a constant axial load, $P=0.1f_{ck}A_g$. Residual seismic capacity of damaged specimens was evaluated by analzying the moment-curvature hysteresis and the curvature ductility. Test results show that the biggest curvature was developed around 15cm above the footing, which induced the column failure. It was observed that RC bridge specimens with lap-spliced longitudinal steels appeared to fail at low curvature ductility but significant improvement was made in the curvature ductility of RC specimens with FRP straps wrapped around the plastic hinge region. Based on the experimental variation of the curvature of RC specimens, new equivalent length of the plastic hinge region was proposed by considering the lateral confinement in this study. The analytical and experimental relationship between the displacement and the curvature ductility were compared based on this proposal, which gave excellent result.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2020

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on effects of local damages on the in-plane elastic-plastic buckling and strength of a fixed parabolic steel tubular arch under a vertical load distributed uniformly over its span, which have not been reported in the literature hitherto. The in-plane structural behaviour and strength of ten specimens with different local damages are investigated experimentally. A finite element (FE) model for damaged steel tubular arches is established and is validated by the test results. The FE model is then used to conduct parametric studies on effects of the damage location, depth and length on the strength of steel arches. The experimental results and FE parametric studies show that effects of damages at the arch end on the strength of the arch are more significant than those of damages at other locations of the arch, and that effects of the damage depth on the strength of arches are most significant among those of the damage length. It is also found that the failure modes of a damaged steel tubular arch are much related to its initial geometric imperfections. The experimental results and extensive FE results show that when the effective cross-section considering local damages is used in calculating the modified slenderness of arches, the column bucking curve b in GB50017 or Eurocode3 can be used for assessing the remaining in-plane strength of locally damaged parabolic steel tubular arches under uniform compression. Furthermore, a useful interaction equation for assessing the remaining in-plane strength of damaged steel tubular arches that are subjected to the combined bending and axial compression is also proposed based on the validated FE models. It is shown that the proposed interaction equation can provide lower bound assessments for the remaining strength of damaged arches under in-plane general loading.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.3 s.49
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• pp.47-55
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• 2006

Seismic performance and retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) two-column piers widely used at roadway bridges in Korea was experimentally evaluated. Ten two-column piers that were 400 mm in diameter and 2,000 mm in height were constructed. These piers were subjected to hi-directional cyclic loadings under a constant axial load of $0.1f_{ck}A_g$. Test parameters were the confinement steel ratio, loading pattern, lap splice of longitudinal reinforcing bars, and retrofitting method. Specimens with lap-spliced longitudinal bars were retrofitted with steel jacket, pre-stressing steel wire, and steel band. Test result showed that while the specimens subjected to bi-directional lateral cyclic loadings which consisted of two main amplitudes in the transverse axis and two sub amplitudes in longitudinal axis, referred to as a T-series cyclic loadings, exhibited plastic hinges both at the top and bottom parts of the column, the specimens subjected to bi-directional lateral cyclic loadings in an opposite way, referred to as a L-series cyclic loadings, exhibited a plastic hinge only at the bottom of the column. The displacement ductility of the specimen under the T-series loadings was bigger than that of the specimen under the L-series loadings. Specimen retrofitted with pre-stressing steel wires exhibited poor ductility due to the upward shift of the plastic hinge region because of over-reinforcement, but specimens retrofitted with steel jacket and steel band showed the required displacement ductility. Steel band can be an effective retrofitting scheme to improve the seimsic performance of RC bridge piers, considering its practical construction.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3068-3084
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• 2021

Investigations of large commercial aircraft impact effect on nuclear power plant (NPP) buildings have been drawing extensive attentions, particularly after the 9/11 event, and this paper aims to experimentally assess the damage and vibrations of NPP buildings subjected to aircraft crash. In present Part I, two shots of reduce-scaled model test of aircraft impacting on NPP building were carried out. Firstly, the 1:15 aircraft model (weighs 135 kg) and RC NPP model (weighs about 70 t) are designed and prepared. Then, based on the large rocket sled loading test platform, the aircraft models were accelerated to impact perpendicularly on the two sides of NPP model, i.e., containment and auxiliary buildings, with a velocity of about 170 m/s. The strain-time histories of rebars within the impact area and acceleration-time histories of each floor of NPP model are derived from the pre-arranged twenty-one strain gauges and twenty tri-axial accelerometers, and the whole impact processes were recorded by three high-speed cameras. The local penetration and perforation failure modes occurred respectively in the collision scenarios of containment and auxiliary buildings, and some suggestions for the NPP design are given. The maximum acceleration in the 1:15 scaled tests is 1785.73 g, and thus the corresponding maximum resultant acceleration in a prototype impact might be about 119 g, which poses a potential threat to the nuclear equipment. Furthermore, it was found that the nonlinear decrease of vibrations along the height was well reflected by the variations of both the maximum resultant vibrations and Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV). The present experimental work on the damage and dynamic responses of NPP structure under aircraft impact is firstly presented, which could provide a benchmark basis for further safety assessments of prototype NPP structure as well as inner systems and components against aircraft crash.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.635-650
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• 2018

Many people have been recognized that the Korean Peninsula is no longer safe area from the earthquake by the recent earthquakes occurred in the country. The earthquakes that occurred at Pohang and Gyeongju appeared differently from them considered in the seismic design and researches on the seismic design method have been also conducted by many researchers. Studies on seismic loads are mainly focused on existing superstructures, and research involving them has been actively carried out in reality. However, paper regarding structural stability of reinforcement from seismic load such as soil-nails, rock-bolts, ground anchors which were constructed to ensure stability of serviced structure have been published rarely. In this study, ground anchor been effected by static load and seismic load which is settled in the weathered rock is analyzed. Results for static load are obtained from field test and seismic load is from numerical analysis. In this study, the behavioral characteristics of the ground anchor were analyzed by numerical analysis in case of seismic loading based on the result of the in-situ tensile test of the ground anchor settled weathered rock. As a result, settlement of concrete block due to application of tension force for ground anchor occurred as well as following loss of axial force for ground anchor. Also, as bond length and period of seismic load are longer, increasement of displacement is greater.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.3
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• pp.305-326
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• 2022

To realize the recycling utilization of waste concrete and alleviate the shortage of resources, 11 specimens of steel reinforced recycled concrete (SRRC) filled circular steel tube columns were designed and manufactured in this study, and the cyclic loading tests on the specimens of columns were also carried out respectively. The hysteretic curves, skeleton curves and performance indicators of columns were obtained and analysed in detail. Besides, the finite element model of columns was established through OpenSees software, which considered the adverse effect of recycled coarse aggregate (RA) replacement rates and the constraint effect of circular steel tube on internal RAC. The numerical calculation curves of columns are in good agreement with the experimental curves, which shows that the numerical model is relatively reasonable. On this basis, a series of nonlinear parameters analysis on the hysteretic behaviors of columns were also investigated. The results are as follows: When the replacement rates of RA increases from 0 to 100%, the peak loads of columns decreases by 7.78% and the ductility decreases slightly. With the increase of axial compression ratio, the bearing capacity of columns increases first and then decreases, but the ductility of columns decreases rapidly. Increasing the wall thickness of circular steel tube is very profitable to improve the bearing capacity and ductility of columns. When the section steel ratio increases from 5.54% to 9.99%, although the bearing capacity of columns is improved, it has no obvious contribution to improve the ductility of columns. With the decrease of shear span ratio, the bearing capacity of columns increases obviously, but the ductility decreases, and the failure mode of columns develops into brittle shear failure. Therefore, in the engineering design of columns, the situation of small shear span ratio (i.e., short columns) should be avoided as far as possible. Based on this, the calculation model on the skeleton curves of columns was established by the theoretical analysis and fitting method, so as to determine the main characteristic points in the model. The effectiveness of skeleton curve model is verified by comparing with the test skeleton curves.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.45-65
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• 2022

In this paper, a diaphragm wall that supports soils and rock was modeled using FLAC, a finite difference analysis program, to evaluate the seismic behavior of temporary retaining structures in a deep excavation. The appropriateness of the numerical model was verified by comparing its results with those of the centrifuge test performed in a similar condition. The bending moment distribution along the diaphragm wall shows a very similar tendency, and the maximum acceleration obtained at the backfill and top of the wall shows a difference within 5%. Based on the developed model, a parametric study was conducted in various input earthquake, ground, and excavation conditions. The maximum structural forces and bending moment under earthquake loading were compared with the maximum values during excavation, from which the critical condition that requires a seismic design was roughly sorted out. The maximum bending moment of a wall that retains soil layers increased 17%. Particularly, the axial force of struts located in loose soils increased 32% under 100 years return period of an earthquake event, which strongly is estimated to require seismic design for structural safety.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.129-136
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• 2006

Engineered mixtures, which consist of rigid sand particles and soft fine-grained rubber particles, are tested to characterize their small and large-strain responses. Engineered soils are prepared with different volumetric sand fraction, sf, to identify the transition from a rigid to a soft granular skeleton using wave propagation, $K_{o}-loading$, and triaxial testing. Deformation moduli at small, middle and large-strain do not change linearly with the volume fraction of rigid particles; instead, deformation moduli increase dramatically when the sand fraction exceeds a threshold value between sf=0.6 to 0.8 that marks the formation of a percolating network of stiff particles. The friction angle increases with the volume fraction of rigid particles. Conversely, the axial strain at peak strength increases with the content of soft particles, and no apparent peak strength is observed in specimens when sand fraction is less than 60%. The presence of soft particles alters the formation of force chains. While soft particles are not part of high-load carrying chains, they play the important role of preventing the buckling of stiff particle chains.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.123-131
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• 2006

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading has been the most extensive damage to pile foundations during earthquakes. Several cases of pile failures were reported despite the fact that a large margin of safety factor was employed in their design. In this study, 1-g shaking table tests were performed in order to analyze the failure behavior of piles embedded in liquefied soil deposits by buckling instability. As a result, it can be concluded that the pile subjected to excessive axial loads $(near\;P_{cr})$ can fail easily by buckling instability during liquefaction. When lateral spreading took place in sloping grounds, it was found that lateral loading due to lateral spreading increased lateral deflection of pile and reduced the buckling load. In addition, from the buckling shape of pile, difference between Euler's buckling and pile buckling vat observed. In the case of pile buckling, hinge formed at the middle point of the pile, not at the bottom. And in sloping grounds, location of hinge formation got lower compared with level ground because of the soil movements.