• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.93-102
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• 2021

The dynamic characterization of a three-story auxiliary building in a nuclear power plant (NPP) constructed with a monolithic reinforced concrete shear wall is investigated in this study. The shear wall is subjected to a joint-research, round-robin analysis organized by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, South Korea, to predict seismic responses of that auxiliary building in NPP through a shake table test. Five different intensity measures of the base excitation are applied to the shaking table test to get the acceleration responses from the different building locations for one horizontal direction (front-back). Simultaneously to understand the global damage scenario of the structure, a frequency search test is conducted after each excitation. The primary motivation of this study is to develop a nonlinear numerical model considering the multi-layered shell element and compare it with the test result to validate through the modal parameter identification and floor responses. In addition, the acceleration amplification factor is evaluated to judge the dynamic behavior of the shear wall with the existing standard, thus providing theoretical support for engineering practice.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.279-293
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• 2019

The overall seismic performance of existing pre 1960-70s reinforced concrete (RC) structures is significantly affected by the inadequate length of columns' lap-spliced reinforcement. Due to this crucial structural deficiency, the cyclic response is dominated by premature bond - slip failure, strength and stiffness degradation, poor energy dissipation capacity and low ductility. Recent earthquakes worldwide highlighted the importance of improving the load transfer mechanism between lap-spliced bars, while it was clearly demonstrated that the failure of lap splices may result in a devastating effect on structural integrity. Extensive experimental and analytical research was carried out herein, to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of strengthening techniques applied to RC columns with lap-spliced reinforcement and also accurately predict the columns' response during an earthquake. Ten large scale cantilever column subassemblages, representative of columns found in existing pre 1970s RC structures, were constructed and strengthened by steel or RC jacketing. The enhanced specimens were imposed to earthquake-type loading and their lateral response was evaluated with respect to the hysteresis of two original and two control subassemblages. The main variables examined were the lap splice length, the steel jacket width and the amount of additional confinement offered by the jackets. Moreover, an analytical formulation proposed by Tsonos (2007a, 2019) was modified appropriately and applied to the lap splice region, to calculate shear stress developed in the concrete and predict if yielding of reinforcement is achieved. The accuracy of the analytical method was checked against experimental results from both the literature and the experimental work included herein.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.32-40
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• 2018

Since 2000, the frequency of earthquakes beyond the 5.0 magnitude quake has been increasing in the Korean peninsula. For instance, the 5.0-magnitude earthquake in Baekryong-do in 2003 has occurred, and recent earthquake with Gyeongju(2016) and Pohang(2017) measured respectively magnitude of 5.2 and 5.8 on the Richter scale. As results, the public concern and anxiety about earthquakes are increasing, and therefore it is necessarily required for social infrastructure to reinforce seismic design and energy production facilities directly related to the national economy and security. This study represents the analysis of seismic performance evaluation methodology such as Seismic Margin Assessment (SMA), Seismic Probabilistic Risk Assessment (SPRA), High Confidence Low Probability Failure (HCLPF) in nuclear power plants in order to develop optimal seismic performance improvement. Current methodologies to evaluate nuclear power plants are also addressed. Through review of the nuclear structure evaluation past and current trend, it contributes to be the basis for the improvement of evaluation techniques on the next generation of nuclear power plants.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

In this study, the effectiveness of a multi-action hybrid damper (MHD) composed of lead rubber bearing (LRB) and friction pad was verified in terms of seismic performance improvement of a frame structure. The LRB and the friction elements are connected in series, so the LRB governs the intial small deformation and the friction determines large deformation behavior. Cyclic loading tests were conducted by using a half scale steel frame structure with the MHD, and the results indicated that the structure became to have the stable trilinear hysteresis with large initial stiffness and first yielding due to the LRB, and the second yielding due to the friction. The MHD could significantly increase the energy dissipation capacity of the structure and the hysteresis curves obtained by tests were almost identical to the analytically estimated ones.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.743-754
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• 2020

This study provides an insight of the nonlinear behavior of the Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT) structure using the distributed plasticity approach. The fiber section beam-column element is applied to construct the finite element model. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified using linear analysis via the comparison of the dynamic characteristics. For collapse risk assessment of OWT, the nonlinear effects considering the earthquake Incident Angle (IA) have been evaluated first. Then, the Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) has been executed using a set of 20 near-fault records. Lastly, fragility curves are developed to evaluate the vulnerability of structures for different limit states. Attained results justify the accuracy of the proposed approach for the structural response against the ground motions and other environmental loads. It indicates that effects of static wind and wave loads along with the earthquake loads should be considered during the risk assessment of the OWT structure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.165-172
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• 2022

This study is conducted to verify the seismic reinforcement effects of internally inserted buckling-restrained braces supported laterally by buckling-restrained rings for the seismic reinforcement of existing reinforced concrete buildings with non-seismic details. First, to evaluate the performance of KDS, the hysteretic characteristics of buckling-restrained braces are verified, and it is discovered that they satisfy the conformance criteria of the displacement-dependent damping device. Three full-scale, two-story reinforced concrete framework specimens are prepared to verify the seismic reinforcement effects, and the proposed buckling-restrained braces are bolstered with single diagonal and V-shaped braces to be compared with non-reinforced specimens. By performing a comparison with non-reinforced specimens that present intensive shear cracks at the bottom of first-floor columns, it is revealed that the maximum load and energy dissipation of specimens reinforced with the proposed buckling restrained braces, in which the structural damage extends evenly throughout the system, are approximately 4 and 6.2 times higher, respectively, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed seismic reinforcement method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.641-652
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• 2021

Digging well foundation has been widely used in railway bridges due to its good economy and reliability. In other instances, bridges with digging well foundation still have damage risks during earthquakes. In this study, a new type of digging well foundation with prefabricated roots was proposed to reduce earthquake damage of these bridges. Quasi-static tests were conducted to investigate the failure mechanism of the root digging well foundation, and then to analyze seismic behaviors of the new type well foundation. The testing results indicated that these prefabricated roots could effectively limit the rotation and uplift of the digging well foundation and increase the lateral bearing capacity of the digging well foundation. The elastic critical load and ultimate load can be increased by 69% and 36% if prefabricated roots were added in the digging well foundation. The prefabricated roots drived more soil around the foundation to participate in working, the stiffness of the bridge pier with root digging well foundation was improved. Moreover, the root participation could improve the energy dissipation capacity of soil-foundation-pier interaction system. The conclusions obtained in this paper had important guiding significance for the popularization and application of the digging well foundation with prefabricated roots in earthquake-prone zones.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

Buckling failure is one of the classical types of catastrophic landslides developing on inclination-paralleled rock slopes, which is mainly governed by its self-weight, earthquake and ground water. However, nearly none of the existing studies fully consider the influence of slope self-weight, earthquake and ground water on the mechanical model of buckling failure. In this paper, based on energy equilibrium principle and elastoplastic slab theory, a thorough mechanical analysis on bucking slopes has been carried out. Furthermore, an analytical solution for slip bucking failure of rock slopes has been proposed, which fully considers the effect of slope self-weight, seismic force and hydrostatic pressure. Finally, the methodology is used to conduct comparative analysis with other analytical solutions for three practical buckling studies. The results show that the proposed approach is capable of providing a more accurate and reasonable evaluation for stability of rock slopes with potential buckling failure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.257-266
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• 2024

Due to seismically deficient details, existing reinforced concrete structures have low lateral resistance capacities. Since these building structures suffer an increase in axial loads to the main structural element due to the green retrofit (e.g., energy equipment/device, roof garden) for CO₂ reduction and vertical extension, building capacities are reduced. This paper proposes a machine-learning-based methodology for allowable ranges of axial loading ratio to reinforced concrete columns using simple structural details. The methodology consists of a two-step procedure: (1) a machine-learning-based failure detection model and (2) column damage limits proposed by previous researchers. To demonstrate this proposed method, the existing building structure built in the 1990s was selected, and the allowable range for the target structure was computed for exterior and interior columns.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.429-438
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• 2014

Recent three years of geomagnetic data were analyzed using a method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Wavelet Based Semblance Analysis to investigate any geomagnetic variation caused by earthquakes. This method predicts the geomagnetic variation using the PCA analysis of geomagnetic data, then compares the predicted geomagnetic field with the observation of finding any significant residual. Although it is well known that geomagnetic variation is related with earthquake, most analyses have been limited to some specific cases reflecting the correlation. In this study, we analyze seventeen cases of earthquakes that occurred in and around the Korean peninsula from 2009 to 2011 and that show the precursory and co-seismic relation between the earthquakes and geomagnetic variations.