• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1451-1465
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• 2016

The effectiveness of base isolation (BI) systems for mitigation of seismic vibration of bridges have been extensively studied in the past. It is well established in those studies that the performance of BI system is largely dependent on the characteristics of isolator yield strength. For optimum design of such systems, normally a standard nonlinear optimization problem is formulated to minimize the maximum response of the structure, referred as Stochastic Structural Optimization (SSO). The SSO of BI system is usually performed with reference to a problem of unconstrained optimization without imposing any restriction on the maximum isolator displacement. In this regard it is important to note that the isolator displacement should not be arbitrarily large to fulfil the serviceability requirements and to avoid the possibility of pounding to the adjacent units. The present study is intended to incorporate the effect of excessive isolator displacement in optimizing BI system to control seismic vibration effect of bridges. In doing so, the necessary stochastic response of the isolated bridge needs to be optimized is obtained in the framework of statistical linearization of the related nonlinear random vibration problem. A simply supported bridge is taken up to elucidate the effect of constraint condition on optimum design and overall performance of the isolated bridge compared to that of obtained by the conventional unconstrained optimization approach.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 2017

This paper presents a numerical investigation on the seismic behavior of isolated bridges with supplemental viscous damping. Usually very large displacements make seismic isolation an unfeasible solution due to boundary conditions, especially in case of existing bridges or high risk seismic regions. First, a suggested optimal design procedure is introduced, then seismic performance of three real bridges with different isolation systems and damping levels is investigated. Each bridge is studied in four different configurations: simply supported (SSB), isolated with 10% damping (IB), isolated with 30% damping (LRB) and isolated with optimal supplemental damping ratio (IDB). Two of the case studies are investigated under spectrum compatible far-field ground motions, while the third one is subjected to near-fault strong motions. With respect to different design strategies proposed by other authors, results of the analysis demonstrated that an isolated bridge equipped with HDLRBs and a total equivalent damping ratio of 70% represents a very effective design solution. Thanks to confirmed effective performance in terms of base shear mitigation and displacement reduction under both far field and near fault ground motions, as well as for both simply supported and continuous bridges, the suggested control system provides robustness and reliability in terms of seismic performance also resulting cost effective.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.205-215
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• 2010

Recently, earthquake proof technology has been widely applied to both new and existing structures and bridges. The analysis of bridge systems equipped with structural control devices, which possess large degrees of freedom and nonlinear characteristics, is a result in time-consuming task. Therefore, a piecewise exact solution is proposed in this study to simplify the seismic mitigation analysis process for bridge systems equipped with sliding-type isolators. In this study, the simplified system having two degrees of freedom, to reasonably represent the large number of degrees of freedom of a bridge, and is modeled to obtain a piecewise exact solution for system responses during earthquakes. Simultaneously, we used the nonlinear finite element computer program to analyze the bridge responses and verify the accuracy of the proposed piecewise exact solution for bridge systems equipped with sliding-type isolators. The conclusions derived by comparing the results obtained from the piecewise exact solution and nonlinear finite element analysis reveal that the proposed solution not only simplifies the calculation process but also provides highly accurate seismic responses of isolated bridges under earthquakes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.9 no.4 s.33
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• pp.625-635
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• 1997

The base isolation technique and its benefits in reducing the transmitted earthquake energy into a structure have gained increasing recognition during the last two decades. Unfortunately, the current available design procedures, especially for base-isolated bridges, seem inadequate and too restrictive. As a result, practical design procedure still relies upon a series of deterministic time history analyses. In this study, the evaluation of the possibility of the normal mode method to predict the nonlinear seismic responses of base isolated bridges has been performed. The applicability has been examined through the numerical approach with isolator's elastic or plastic states of the base isolated bridges. Numerical results show that the 1st. mode period and the various responses are varied with the state but are conversed. And, the result show that the normal mode method is applicable to predict the seismic responses and to design the babe isolated bridge. Various analysis method to bridges with bilinearized hysteresis isolator and various pier heights are evalulated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.9 no.4 s.33
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• pp.637-647
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• 1997

As stated in Part(I), the use of the isolator is meant to protect a structure from seismic risk, by concentrating the inelastic deformations to relatively cheap and replaceable devices while the rest of the structures remains elastic. This research has been carried out to investigate the effects of various structural parameters and isolator characteristics on the seismic response of Base Isolated Bridges. Simplified analysis method for practical design is developed by using the results. The Proposed Code-Type approach method can be used to estimate the inertial forces accurately, not only at the isolator but throughout the height of the Base-Isolated Bridges. The proposed method is recommended to use in preliminary design tool or even a final design tool for Base Isolated Bridges. For the validation of simplified design method, examples with artificial earthquake time history and design response spectrum for P.C Box Bridge with bilinear hysteretic steel damper are evaluated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.399-412
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• 2011

This study compares the performance of two smart isolation systems that utilize superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) for seismic protection of bridges using energy balance concepts. The first isolation system is a SMA/rubber-based isolation system (SRB-IS) and consists of a laminated rubber bearing that decouples the superstructure from the bridge piers and a SMA device that provides additional energy dissipation and re-centering capacity. The second isolation system, named as superelastic-friction base isolator (S-FBI), combines the superelastic SMAs with a flat steel-Teflon bearing rather than a laminated rubber bearing. Seismic energy equations of a bridge structure with SMA-based isolation systems are established by absolute and relative energy balance formulations. Nonlinear time history analyses are performed in order to assess the effectiveness of the isolation systems and to compare their performance. The program RSPMatch 2005 is employed to generate spectrum compatible ground motions that are used in time history analyses of the isolated bridge. Results indicate that SRB-IS produces higher seismic input energy, recoverable energy and base shears as compared to the S-FBI system. Also, it is shown that combining superelastic SMAs with a sliding bearing rather than rubber bearing significantly reduce the amount of the required SMA material.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.79-89
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• 2000

In this paper, the seismic analysis and the modeling techniques have been introduced for aseismic performances assessment, when seismic isolation bearings are applied on a real bridge. Nonlinear time-history analysis is carried out using finite element analysis program. In this study, EI Centro earthquake(1940, N00W), Mexico earthquake(1985, N90W), and earthquake simulation from modified SIMQKE are used as earthquake ground excitations. The seismic response of seismically isolated bridge is compared with that of a bridge using conventional Pot Bearings, after obtaining the displacements of the deck, the deformations of the piers, shear forces and moments of the bottoms of the piers. The analytical analysis results show that seismic isolation bearing, especially seismic isolation bearings with sliding mechanism, could reduce earthquake forces.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.435-441
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• 2016

The Korean peninsula has known as a minor-to-moderate seismic region. However, some recent studies had shown that the maximum possible earthquake magnitude in the region is approximately 6.3-6.5. Therefore, a seismic vulnerability assessment of the existing infrastructures considering ground motions in Korea is necessary. In this study, we developed seismic fragility curves for a continuous steel box girder bridge and two typical transmission towers, in which a set of seven artificial and natural ground motions recorded in South Korea is used. A finite element simulation framework, OpenSees, is utilized to perform nonlinear time history analyses of the bridge and a commercial software, SAP2000, is used to perform time history analyses of the transmission towers. The fragility curves based on Korean ground motions were then compared with the fragility curves generated using worldwide ground motions to evaluate the effect of the two ground motion groups on the seismic fragility curves of the structures. The results show that both non-isolated and base-isolated bridges are less vulnerable to the Korean ground motions than to worldwide earthquakes. Similarly to the bridge case, the transmission towers are safer during Korean motions than that under worldwide earthquakes in terms of fragility functions.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2023

In this study, structural analyses were conducted to analyze the performance of a bridge to which friction pendulum systems (FPSs) were applied using different friction models. A Coulomb friction model and a rate dependent friction model were constructed using the friction coefficient of a PVDF/MgO friction material to analyze the effect of different friction analysis models. The Coulomb friction model uses a single friction coefficient regardless of friction velocity, while the rate dependent friction model can reflect the change in the friction coefficient with friction velocity. Nonlinear time history and seismic fragility analyses were conducted to confirm responses of the bridge. The seismic responses of a deck and a column were used to evaluate the performance of the base isolated bridge, and a friction model that can effectively evaluate the performance of isolated bridges was analyzed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.25-28
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• 2004

Many highway bridges in Korea need seismic retrofit because only one decade has passed since the seismic design criteria was introduced. In this experimental study, the effectiveness of base isolation bearings was discussed for the seismic retrofit of the highway bridges. Four real scale RC pier specimens were constructed for the test. These RC piers didn't have seismic details. Except for one RC pier for the pilot test, three types of bearings such as Pot bearing, Rubber bearing (RB), Lead-rubber bearing (LRB) were applied to the other RC piers respectively. The RC pier with Pot bearing means current state of the prototype bridge that is not retrofitted seismically. And two RC piers with RB or LRB mean assumed states of the prototype bridge that are retrofitted seismically. To simulate dynamic behavior of these RC piers under earthquake loads, Pseudo-dynamic test method was used.