• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.277-283
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• 2016

Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings are known to be highly vulnerable to seismic loadings. Although significant physical variation may exist for URM buildings that fall into a same structural category, a single set of fragility curves is typically used as a representation of the seismic vulnerability of the URM structures. This study investigates the effect of physical variation of URM structures on their seismic performance level. Variables that describe the physical variation of the structure are defined based on the inventory analysis. Seismic behavior of the structures is then monitored by changing the variables to investigate the effect of each variable. The analysis results show that among the variables considered the seismic performance of URM building depends on the variation of the width, the aspect ratio, and the number of story. The need for further research on the modeling of the connections between the walls and diaphragms and the torsional effect is also addressed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 1998

In view of the rapid development of economics and technology, perilous meteorological and geological conditions often cause natural disasters and result in severe loss of lives and properties in Taiwan. To promote multi-hazard mitigation strategies in an integrated a, pp.oach, the National Science Council established a National Science and Technology Program for Disaster Mitigation in January 1998. This program emphasizes on the implementation of research results in the National Disaster Management System. This paper describes the earthquake loss estimation methodology that is currently developed in Taiwan. Topics of potential earth science hazards (PESH) and building vulnerability analysis are described in detail.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.629-648
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• 2016

This paper deals with 111 buildings built between 1962 and 1987, from various parts of the city of Osijek, for which, through the collection of documentation, a database is created. The aim of this paper is to provide the first steps in assessing seismic risk in Osijek applying method based on vulnerability index. This index uses collected information of parameters of the building: the structural system, the construction year, plan, the height, i.e., the number of stories, the type of foundation, the structural and non-structural elements, the type and the quality of main construction material, the position in the block and built-up area. According to this method defining five damage states, the action is expressed in terms of the macroseismic intensity and the seismic quality of the buildings by means of a vulnerability index. The value of the vulnerability index can be changed depending on the structural systems, quality of construction, etc., by introducing behavior and regional modifiers based on expert judgments. Since there is no available data of damaged buildings under earthquake loading in our country, we will propose behavior modifiers based on values suggested by earlier works and on judgment based on available project documentation of the considered buildings. Depending on the proposed modifiers, the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings in the city of Osijek will be assessed. The resulting vulnerability of the considered residential buildings provides necessary insight for emergency planning and for identification of critical objects vulnerable to seismic loading.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.547-571
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• 2023

To deeply probe the actual earthquake level and fragility of typical reinforced concrete (RC) structures under multiple intensity grades, considering diachronic measurement building stock samples and actual observations of representative catastrophic earth shocks in China from 1990 to 2010, RC structures were divided into traditional RC structures (TRCs) and bottom reinforced concrete frame seismic wall masonry (BFM) structures, and the empirical damage characteristics and mechanisms were analysed. A great deal of statistics and induction were developed on the historical experience investigation data of 59 typical catastrophic earthquakes in 9 provinces of China. The database and fragility matrix prediction model were established with TRCs of 4,122.5284×104 m² and 5,844 buildings and BFMs of 5,872 buildings as empirical seismic damage samples. By employing the methods of structural damage probability and statistics, nonlinear prediction of seismic vulnerability, and numerical and applied functional analysis, the comparison matrix of actual fragility probability prediction of TRC and BFM in multiple intensity regions under the latest version of China's macrointensity standard was established. A novel nonlinear regression prediction model of seismic vulnerability was proposed, and prediction models considering the seismic damage ratio and transcendental probability parameters were constructed. The time-varying vulnerability comparative model of the sample database was developed according to the different periods of multiple earthquakes. The new calculation method of the average fragility prediction index (AFPI) matrix parameter model has been proposed to predict the seismic fragility of an areal RC structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.351-368
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• 2021

This paper, by applying a reliability-based framework, develops seismic vulnerability macrozonation maps for Tehran, the capital and one of the most earthquake-vulnerable city of Iran. Seismic performance assessment of 3-, 4- and 5-story steel moment resisting frames (SMRFs), designed according to ASCE/SEI 41-17 and Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings (2800 Standard), is investigated in terms of overall maximum inter-story drift ratio (MIDR) and unit repair cost ratio which is hereafter known as "damage ratio". To this end, Tehran city is first meshed into a network of 66 points to numerically locate low- to mid-rise SMRFs. Active faults around Tehran are next modeled explicitly. Two different combination of faults, based on available seismological data, are then developed to explore the impact of choosing a proper seismic scenario. In addition, soil effect is exclusively addressed. After building analytical models, reliability methods in combination with structure-specific probabilistic models are applied to predict demand and damage ratio of structures in a cost-effective paradigm. Due to capability of proposed methodology incorporating both aleatory and epistemic uncertainties explicitly, this framework which is centered on the regional demand and damage ratio estimation via structure-specific characteristics can efficiently pave the way for decision makers to find the most vulnerable area in a regional scale. This technical basis can also be adapted to any other structures which the demand and/or damage ratio prediction models are developed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2023

The recent increase in earthquake activities has highlighted the importance of seismic performance evaluation for civil infrastructures. In particular, the container crane essential to maintaining the national logistics system with port operation requires an exact evaluation of its seismic response. Thus, this study aims to assess the seismic vulnerability of container cranes considering their seismic characteristics. The seismic response of the container crane should account for the structural members' yielding and buckling, as well as the crane wheel's uplifting derailment in operation. The crane's yielding and buckling limit states were defined using the stress of crane members based on the load and displacement curve obtained from nonlinear static analysis. The derailment limit state was based on the height of the rail, and nonlinear dynamic analysis was performed to obtain the seismic fragility curves considering defined limit states and seismic characteristics. The yield and derailment probabilities of the crane in the near-fault ground motion were approximately 1.5 to 4.7 and 2.8 to 6.8 times higher, respectively, than those in the far-fault ground motion.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.221-230
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• 2023

This study proposes a methodology for assessing seismic liquefaction hazard by implementing high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) ground models with high-density/high-precision site investigation data acquired in an area of interest, which would be linked to geotechnical numerical analysis tools. It is possible to estimate the vulnerability of earthquake-induced geotechnical phenomena (ground motion amplification, liquefaction, landslide, etc.) and their triggering complex disasters across an area for urban development with several stages of high-density datasets. In this study, the spatial-ground models for city development were built with a 3D high-precision grid of 5 m × 5 m × 1 m by applying geostatistic methods. Finally, after comparing each prediction error, the geotechnical model from the Gaussian sequential simulation is selected to assess earthquake-induced geotechnical hazards. In particular, with seven independent input earthquake motions, liquefaction analysis with finite element analyses and hazard mappings with LPI and LSN are performed reliably based on the spatial geotechnical models in the study area. Furthermore, various phenomena and parameters, including settlement in the city planning area, are assessed in terms of geotechnical vulnerability also based on the high-resolution spatial-ground modeling. This case study on the high-precision 3D ground model-based zonations in the area of interest verifies the usefulness in assessing spatially earthquake-induced hazards and geotechnical vulnerability and their decision-making support.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.323-335
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• 2017

A simplified framework for the probabilistic estimation of economic losses induced by the structural vulnerability in single-story and single-bay precast industrial buildings is presented. The simplifications introduced in the framework are oriented to the definition of an expeditious procedure adoptable by government agencies and insurance companies for preliminary risk assessment. The economic losses are evaluated considering seismic hazard, structural response, damage resulting from the structural vulnerability and only structural-vulnerability-induced e]conomic losses, i.e., structural repair or reconstruction costs (stock and flow costs) and content losses induced by structural collapse. The uncertainties associated with each step are accounted for via Monte Carlo simulations. The estimation results in a probabilistic description of the seismic risk of portal-like industrial buildings, expressed in terms of economic losses for each occurrence (i.e., seismic event) that owners (i.e., insured) and stakeholders can use to make risk management decisions. The outcome may also be useful for the definition of the insurance premiums and the evaluation of the risks and costs for the owner corresponding to the insurance industrial costs. A prototype of a precast concrete industrial building located in Mirandola, Italy, hit by the 2012 Emilia earthquake, is used as an example of the application of the procedure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.4
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• pp.503-515
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• 2022

Based on the sliding isolation concrete LSS (liquid-storage structure), the specific seismic vulnerability is analyzed according to the general failure mode. In this study, 12 seismic inputs with different characteristics are used, and their acceleration peak values are modulated. By inputting these waves to the sliding isolation concrete storage structure, the finite-element models of different concrete rectangular LSSs are obtained and analyzed, and the failure probabilities are obtained according to the IDA (incremental dynamic analysis) curves of the structure. The results show that when the seismic acceleration peak value gradually increases from 0.1 g to 1.0 g, the failure probability of LSS gradually increases with the increase in friction coefficient. However, the failure probability of a sliding isolation LSS is less than 100% and far less than the failure probability of a non-isolated rectangular LSS, which shows that an isolated liquid storage structure continues working under a big earthquake. Thus, the sliding isolation for the concrete LSS has a significant damping effect.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.279-293
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• 2021

Most of the existing seismic codes for RC buildings consider only a scenario earthquake for analysis, often characterized by the response spectrum at the specified location. However, any real earthquake event often involves occurrences of multiple earthquakes within a few hours or days, possessing similar or even higher energy than the first earthquake. This critically impairs the rehabilitation measures thereby resulting in the accumulation of structural damages for subsequent earthquakes after the first earthquake. Also, the existing seismic provisions account for the non-linear response of an RC building frame implicitly by specifying a constant response modification factor (R) in a linear elastic design. However, the 'R' specified does not address the changes in structural configurations of RC moment-resisting frames (RC MRFs) viz., building height, number of bays present, bay width, irregularities arising out of mass and stiffness changes, etc. resulting in changed dynamic characteristics of the structural system. Hence, there is an imperative need to assess the seismic performance under sequential earthquake ground motions, considering the adequacy of code-specified 'R' in the representation of dynamic characteristics of RC buildings. Therefore, the present research is focused on the evaluation of the non-linear response of medium-rise 3D RC MRFs with and without vertical irregularities under bi-directional sequential earthquake ground motions using non-linear dynamic analysis. It is evident from the results that collapse probability increases, and 'R' reduces significantly for various RC MRFs subjected to sequential earthquakes, pronouncing the vulnerability and inadequacy of estimation of design base shear by code-specified 'R' under sequential earthquakes.