• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.381-392
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• 2020

Despite that the failure of sign structure may not have disastrous consequence, its sheer number still ensures the need for rigorous safety standard to regulate their maintenance and construction. During its service life, a sign structure is subject to extensive wind load, sometimes well over its permissible design load. A fragility analysis of a sign structure offers a tool for rational decision making and safety evaluation by using a probabilistic framework to consider the various sources of uncertainty that affect its performance. Wind fragility analysis was used to determine the performance of sign structure based on the performance of its connection components. In this study, basic wind fragility concepts and data required to support the fragility analysis of the sign structure such as sign panel's parameters, connection component's parameters, as well as wind load parameters were presented. Fragility and compound fragility analysis showed disparity between connection component. Additionally, reinforcement of the connection system was introduced as an example of the utilization of wind fragility results in the retrofit decision making.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.599-611
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• 2017

This paper improves seismic fragility of a typical steel-concrete composite bridge with the deck-to-pier connection joint configuration at the concrete crossbeam (CCB). Based on the quasi-static test on a typical steel-concrete composite bridge model under the SEQBRI project, the damage states for both of the critical components, the CCB and the pier, are identified. The finite element model is developed, and calibrated using the experimental data to model the damage states of the CCB and the bridge pier as observed from the experiment of the test specimen. Then the component fragility curves for both of the CCB and the pier are derived and combined to develop the system fragility curves of the bridge. The uncertainty associated with the mean system fragility has been discussed and quantified. The study reveals that the CCB is more vulnerable than the pier for certain damage states and the typical steel-concrete composite bridge with CCB exhibits desirable seismic performance.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.847-867
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• 2014

There are continuous efforts to mitigate structural losses from earthquakes and manage risk through seismic risk assessment; seismic fragility curves are widely accepted as an essential tool of such efforts. Seismic fragility curves can be classified into four groups based on how they are derived: empirical, judgmental, analytical, and hybrid. Analytical fragility curves are the most widely used and can be further categorized into two subgroups, depending on whether an analytical function or simulation method is used. Although both methods have shown decent performances for many seismic fragility problems, they often oversimplify the given problems in reliability or structural analyses owing to their built-in assumptions. In this paper, a new method is proposed for the development of seismic fragility curves. Integration with sophisticated software packages for reliability analysis (FERUM) and structural analysis (ZEUS-NL) allows the new method to obtain more accurate seismic fragility curves for less computational cost. Because the proposed method performs reliability analysis using the first-order reliability method, it provides component probabilities as well as useful byproducts and allows further fragility analysis at the system level. The new method was applied to a numerical example of a 2D frame structure, and the results were compared with those by Monte Carlo simulation. The method was found to generate seismic fragility curves more accurately and efficiently. Also, the effect of system reliability analysis on the development of seismic fragility curves was investigated using the given numerical example and its necessity was discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.333-350
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• 2021

Motivated by the demand of seismic protection of museum collections and development of performance-based seismic design guidelines, this paper investigates the seismic fragility of sliding artifacts based on incremental dynamic analysis and three-dimensional finite element model of the artifact-showcase-museum system considering nonlinear behavior of the structure and contact interfaces. Different intensity measures (IMs) for seismic fragility assessment of sliding artifacts are compared. The fragility curves of the sliding artifacts in both freestanding and restrained showcases placed on different floors of a four-story reinforced concrete frame structure are developed. The seismic sliding fragility of the artifacts within a real-world museum subjected to bi-directional horizontal ground motions is also assessed using the proposed IM and engineering demand parameter. Results show that the peak floor acceleration including only values initiating sliding is an efficient IM. Moreover, the sliding fragility estimate for the artifact in the restrained showcase increases as the floor level goes higher, while it may not be true in the freestanding showcase. Furthermore, the artifact is more prone to sliding failure in the restrained showcase than the freestanding showcase. In addition, the artifact has slightly worse sliding performance subjected to bi-directional motions than major-component motions.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.325-343
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• 2018

This study aims to propose a performance-based design method of a novel passive base isolation system, BIO isolation system, which is inspired by an energy dissipation mechanism called 'sacrificial bonds and hidden length'. Fragility functions utilized in this study are derived, indicating the probability that a component, element, or system will be damaged as a function of a single predictive demand parameter. Based on PEER framework methodology for Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE), a systematic design procedure using performance and fragility objectives is presented. Base displacement, superstructure absolute acceleration and story drift ratio are selected as engineering demand parameters. The new design method is then performed on a general two degree-of-freedom (2DOF) structure model and the optimal design under different seismic intensities is obtained through numerical analysis. Seismic performances of the biologically inspired (BIO) isolation system are compared with that of the linear isolation system. To further demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this method, the BIO isolation system of a 4-storey reinforced concrete building is designed and investigated. The newly designed BIO isolators effectively decrease the superstructure responses and base displacement under selected earthquake excitations, showing good seismic performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.653-663
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• 2017

A seismic margin assessment evaluates how much margin exists for the system under beyond design basis earthquake events. Specifically, the seismic margin for the entire system is evaluated by utilizing a systems analysis based on the sub-system and component seismic fragility data. Each seismic fragility curve is obtained by using empirical, experimental, and/or numerical simulation data. The systems analysis is generally performed by employing a fault tree analysis. However, the current practice has clear limitations in that it cannot deal with the uncertainties of basic components and accommodate the newly observed data. Therefore, in this paper, we present a Bayesian-based seismic margin assessment that is conducted using seismic fragility data and fault tree analysis including Bayesian inference. This proposed approach is first applied to the pooltype nuclear research reactor system for the quantitative evaluation of the seismic margin. The results show that the applied approach can allow updating by considering the newly available data/information at any level of the fault tree, and can identify critical scenarios modified due to new information. Also, given the seismic hazard information, this approach is further extended to the real-time risk evaluation. Thus, the proposed approach can finally be expected to solve the fundamental restrictions of the current method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2017

The fundamental goal of this study is to minimize the uncertainty of the median fragility curve and to assess the structural vulnerability under earthquake excitation. Bayesian Inference with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation has been presented for efficient collapse response assessment of the independent intake water tower. The intake tower is significantly used as a diversion type of the hydropower station for maintaining power plant, reservoir and spillway tunnel. Therefore, the seismic fragility assessment of the intake tower is a pivotal component for estimating total system risk of the reservoir. In this investigation, an asymmetrical independent slender reinforced concrete structure is considered. The Bayesian Inference method provides the flexibility to integrate the prior information of collapse response data with the numerical analysis results. The preliminary information of risk data can be obtained from various sources like experiments, existing studies, and simplified linear dynamic analysis or nonlinear static analysis. The conventional lognormal model is used for plotting the fragility curve using the data from time history simulation and nonlinear static pushover analysis respectively. The Bayesian Inference approach is applied for integrating the data from both analyses with the help of MCMC simulation. The method achieves meaningful improvement of uncertainty associated with the fragility curve, and provides significant statistical and computational efficiency.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.647-657
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• 2017

To achieve this goal, two four-span concrete box-girder bridges with typical configurations of California highway bridges are selected as representative bridges: an integral abutment bridge and a seat-type abutment bridge. A detailed numerical model of the representative bridges is created in OpenSees to perform dynamic analyses. To examine the effect of earthquake incidence angle on the fragility of skewed bridges, the representative bridge models are modified with different skew angles. Dynamic analyses for all bridge models are performed for all earthquake incidence angles examined. Simulated results are used to develop demand models and component and system fragility curves for the skewed bridges. The fragility characteristics are compared with regard to earthquake incidence angle. The results suggest that the earthquake incidence angle more significantly affects the seismic demand and fragilities of the integral abutment bridge than the skewed abutment bridge. Finally, a recommendation to account for the randomness due to the ground motion directionality in the fragility assessment is made in the absence of the predetermined earthquake incidence angle.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.386-400
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• 2022

Seismic fragility analysis, a part of seismic probabilistic risk assessment (SPRA), is commonly used to establish the relationship between a representative property of earthquakes and the failure probability of a structure, component, or system. Current guidelines on the SPRA of nuclear power plants (NPPs) used worldwide mainly reflect the earthquake characteristics of the western United States. However, different earthquake characteristics may have a significant impact on the seismic fragility of a structure. Given the concern, this study aimed to investigate the effects of earthquake characteristics on the seismic fragility of concrete containments housing the OPR-1000 reactor. Earthquake time histories were created from 30 ground motions (including those of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake) by spectral matching to the site-specific response spectrum of Hanbit nuclear power plants in South Korea. Fragility curves of the containment structure were determined under the linear response history analysis using a lumped-mass stick model and 30 ground motions, and were compared in terms of earthquake characteristics. The results showed that the median capacity and high confidence of low probability of failure (HCLPF) tended to highly depend on the sustained maximum acceleration (SMA), and increase when using the time histories which have lower SMA compared with the others.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.515-529
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• 2018

Multiple hazards (multihazard) conditions may cause significant risk to structures that are originally designed for individual hazard scenarios. Such a multihazard condition arises when an earthquake strikes to a bridge pre-exposed to scour at foundations due to flood events. This study estimates the impact spectrum of flood-induced scour on seismic vulnerability of bridges. Characteristic river-crossing highway bridges are formed based on the information obtained from bridge inventories. These bridges are analyzed under earthquake-only and the abovementioned multihazard conditions, and bridge fragility curves are developed at component and system levels. Research outcome shows that bridges having pile shafts as foundation elements are protected from any additional seismic vulnerability due to the presence of scour. However, occurrence of floods can increase seismic fragility of bridges at lower damage states due to the adverse impact of scour on bridge components at superstructure level. These findings facilitate bridge design under the stated multihazard condition.