• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.6 s.52
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• pp.125-132
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• 2006

This paper presents the feasibility of a lateral mode piezoelectric oscillator to detect damages in civil infrastructures. The lateral mode oscillator sensor is composed of an electronic feedback oscillator circuit and a piezoelectric lateral mode vibrator to be attached to a structure of interest. Damage to the structure causes a change in the impedance spectrum of the structure, which results in a corresponding change of a resonant frequency of the structure. The oscillator sensors can instantly detect the frequency change in a very simple manner. Feasibility of the piezoelectric oscillator sensor was verified in this work with a sample aluminum plate where artificial cracks of different lengths and number were imposed in sequence. Validity of the measurement was confirmed through comparison of the experimental data with the results of finite element analyses of a plate with cracks.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.159-168
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• 2002

A recently developed filbert-Huang transform (HHT) technique is applied to detect damage locations of bridge structures. The HHT may be used to identify the locations of damages which exhibit nonlinear and nonstationary behavior, since the HHT can show the instantaneous frequency characteristics of the signal. A series of numerical simulations were conducted for bridge pier systems with damages under a controlled load with sweeping frequency. The results of the numerical simulation study indicate that the HHT method can reasonably identify damage locations using a limited number of acceleration sensors under severe measurement noise condition.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.709-718
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• 2020

Fragility curves are useful tools to estimate the damage probability of buildings owing to seismic actions. The purpose of this study is to investigate seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, according to the 2007 and 2018 Turkish Seismic Codes, using fragility curves. For the numerical analyses, typical five- and seven-storey RC buildings were selected and incremental dynamic analyses (IDA) were performed. To complete the IDAs, eleven earthquake acceleration records multiplied by various scaling factors from 0.2g to 0.8g were used. To predict nonlinearity, a distributed hinge model that involves material and geometric nonlinearity of the structural members was used. Damages to confined concrete and reinforcement bar of structural members were obtained by considering the unit deformation demands of the 2007 Turkish Seismic Code (TSC-2007) and the 2018 Turkey Building Earthquake Code (TBEC-2018). Vulnerability evaluation of these buildings was performed using fragility curves based on the results of incremental dynamic analyses. Fragility curves were generated in terms of damage levels occurring in confined concrete and reinforcement bar of structural members with a lognormal distribution assumption. The fragility curves show that the probability of damage occurring is more according to TBEC-2018 than according to TSC-2007 for selected buildings.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.729-742
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• 2015

The aim of the present work was the study of instability in a loose sand from Les Dunes beach in Ain Beninan, Algeria, where the Boumerdes earthquake occurred in 2003. This earthquake caused significant structural damages and claimed the lives of many people. Damages caused to infrastructures were strongly related to phenomena of liquefaction. The study was based on the results of two drained and six undrained triaxial tests over a local sand collected in a region where liquefaction occurred. All the tests hereby analyzed followed compression stress-paths in monotonic conditions and the specimens were isotropically consolidated, since the objective was to study the instability due to static loading as part of a more general project, which also included cyclic studies. The instability was modeled with the second-order work increment criterion. The definition of the instability line for Les Dunes sand and its relation with yield surfaces allowed the identification of the region of potential instability and helped in the evaluation of the susceptibility of soils to liquefy under undrained conditions and its modeling. The dilatancy rate was studied in the points where instability began. Some mixed tests were also simulated, starting with drained conditions and then changing to undrained conditions at different time steps.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.645-667
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• 2016

The 750 m long "De Bosset" bridge in the Cephalonia Island of Western Greece, being the area with the highest seismicity in Europe, was constructed in 1830 by successive stone arches and stiff block-type piers. The bridge suffered extensive damages during past earthquakes, such as the strong M7.2 earthquake of 1953, followed by poorly-designed reconstruction schemes with reinforced concrete. In 2005, a multidisciplinary project for the seismic assessment and restoration of the "De Bosset" bridge was undertaken under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The proposed retrofitting scheme combining soil improvement, structural strengthening and reconstruction of the deteriorated masonry sections was recently applied on site. Design of the rehabilitation measures and assessment of the pre- and post-interventions seismic response of the bridge were based on detailed in-situ and laboratory tests, providing foundation soil and structural material properties. In-situ inspection of the rehabilitated bridge following the strong M6.1 and M6.0 Cephalonia earthquakes of January 26th and February 3rd 2014, respectively, revealed no damages or visible defects. The efficiency of the bridge retrofitting is also proved by a preliminary performance analysis of the bridge under the recorded ground motion induced by the above earthquakes.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.223-236
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• 2019

Experience of previous earthquakes shows that a considerable portion of concrete precast buildings sustain relatively large damages especially at the beam-column joints where the damages are mostly caused by bar slippage. Precast concrete buildings have a kind of discontinuity in their beam-column joints, so reinforcement details in this area is too important and have a significant effect on the seismic behavior of these structures. In this study, a relatively simple and efficient nonlinear model is proposed to simulate pre- and post-elastic behavior of the joints in usual practice of precast concrete building. In this model, beam and column components are represented by linear elastic elements, dimensions of the joint panel are defined by rigid elements, and effect of slip is taken into account by a nonlinear rotational spring at the end of the beam. The proposed method is validated by experimental results for both internal and external joints. In addition, the seismic behavior of the precast building damaged during Bojnord earthquake 13 May 2017, is investigated by using the proposed model for the beam-column joints. Damage unexpectedly inducing the precast building in the moderate Bojnord earthquake may confirm that bearing capacity of the precast building was underestimated without consideration of joint behavior effect.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.29-36
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• 2017

A recent global trend in the increase of earthquake-related disasters has become so frequent as to cause various damages to a wide range of mid- to high-rise buildings. Particularly, more attention is being paid to the effect of horizontal load in high-rise buildings not only on the key structural elements of the structures, but also on the possibility of the secondary damages to them due to the failure of exterior panels, which are non-structural elements, but such damages are difficult to cope with as they may be caused by unexpected changes. The present study examined exterior panels using moving clips to prevent such secondary damages on the non-structural elements and analyzed the structural performance of these exterior panels through the finite element analysis and the shaking table test. The analysis results showed that the exterior panels using moving clips satisfied the structural performance against the allowable story drift of KBC2009 and the safety of the exterior panels was verified by the shake table test.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2024

There are growing concerns that the recently implemented Earthquake Early Warning service is overestimating the rapidly provided earthquake magnitudes (M). As a result, the predicted damages unnecessarily activate earthquake protection systems for critical facilities and lifeline infrastructures that are far away. This study is conducted to improve the estimation accuracy of M by incorporating the observed S-wave seismograms in the near source region after removing the site effects of the seismograms in real time by filtering in the time domain. The ensemble of horizontal S-wave spectra from at least five seismograms without site effects is calculated and normalized to a hypocentric target distance (21.54 km) by using the distance attenuation model of Q(f)=348f^0.52 and a cross-over distance of 50 km. The natural logarithmic mean of the S-wave ensemble spectra is then fitted to Brune's source spectrum to obtain the best estimates for M and stress drop (SD) with the fitting weight of 1/standard deviation. The proposed methodology was tested on the 18 recent inland earthquakes in South Korea, and the condition of at least five records for the near-source region is sufficiently fulfilled at an epicentral distance of 30 km. The natural logarithmic standard deviation of the observed S-wave spectra of the ensemble was calculated to be 0.53 using records near the source for 1~10 Hz, compared to 0.42 using whole records. The result shows that the root-mean-square error of M and ln(SD) is approximately 0.17 and 0.6, respectively. This accuracy can provide a confidence interval of 0.4~2.3 of Peak Ground Acceleration values in the distant range.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.657-671
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• 2015

The level of ductility is determined by depending on the intended use of the building, the region's seismic characteristics and the type of structural system when buildings are planned by engineers. Major portion of seismic energy is intended to be consumed in the plastic zone in structural systems of high ductility, so the occurrence of damages in load bearing and non-load bearing structural elements is accepted in planning stage under severe earthquakes. However, these damages must be limited among specific values in order not to endanger buildings in terms of the bearing capacity. Isolators placed between the basement and upper structure make buildings behave elastically by reducing the effects of seismic loads and improving seismic performance of building significantly. Thus, damages can be limited among desired values. In this study, the effectiveness of seismic isolation is investigated on both fixed based and seismic isolated models of a hospital building with high ductility level with regard to lateral displacements, internal forces, structural periods and cost of the building. Layered rubber bearings are interposed between the base of the structure and foundation. Earthquake analysis of the building are performed using earthquake records in time domain (Kocaeli, Loma Prieta and Landers). Results obtained from three-dimensional finite element models are presented by graphs and tables in detail. That seismic isolation reduces significantly the destructive effects of earthquakes on structures is seen from the results obtained by seismic analysis.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.67-80
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• 1993

This paper presents the results of an analytical study to evaluate the inelastic seismic response characteristics of multistory building structures, the effects of gravity load on the seismic responses and its implications on the earthquake resistant design. Static analyses for incremental lateral force and nonlinear dynamic analyses for earthquake motions were performed to evaluate the seismic response of example multistory building structures. Most of considerations are placed on the distribution of inelastic responses over the height of the structure. When an earthquake occurs, bending moment demand is increased considerably from the top to the bottom of multistory structures, so that differences between bending moment demands and supplies are greater in lower floos of multistory structures. As a result, for building structures designed by the current earthquake resistant design procedure, inelastic deformations for earthquake ground motions do not distribute uniformly over the height of structures and those are induced mainly in bottom floors. In addition, gravity load considerded in design procedure tends to cause much larger damages in lower floors. From the point of view of seismic responses, gravity load affects the initial yield time of griders in earlier stage of strong earthquakes and results in different inelastic responses among the plastic hinges that form in the girders of a same floor. However, gravity load moments at beam ends are gradually reduced and finally fully relaxed after a structure experiences some inelastic excursions as a ground motion is getting stronger. Reduction of gravity load moment results in much increased structural damages in lower floors building structures. The implications of the effects of gravity load for seismic design of multistory building structures are to reduce the contributions of gravity load and to increased those of seismic load in determination of flexual strength for girders and columns.