• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.439-452
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• 2022

A forecast of slope behavior during catastrophic events, such as earthquakes is crucial to recognize the risk of slope failure. This paper endeavors to eliminate the significant supposition of predefined slip surfaces in the slope stability analysis, which questions the relevance of simple conventional methods under seismic conditions. To overcome such limitations, a methodology dependent on the slip line hypothesis, which permits an automatic generation of slip surfaces, is embraced to trace the extreme slope face under static and seismic conditions. The effect of earthquakes is considered using the pseudo-static approach. The current outcomes developed from a parametric study endorse a non-linear slope surface as the extreme profile, which is in accordance with the geomorphological aspect of slopes. The proposed methodology is compared with the finite element limit analysis to ensure credibility. Through the design charts obtained from the current investigation, the stability of slopes can be assessed under seismic conditions. It can be observed that the extreme slope profile demands a flat configuration to endure the condition of the limiting equilibrium at a higher level of seismicity. However, a concurrent enhancement in the shear strength of the slope medium suppresses this tendency by offering greater resistance to the seismic inertial forces induced in the medium. Unlike the traditional linear slopes, the extreme slope profiles mostly exhibit a steeper layout over a significant part of the slope height, thus ensuring a more optimized solution to the slope stability problem. Further, the susceptibility of the Longnan slope failure in the Huining-Wudu seismic belt is predicted using the current plasticity approach, which is found to be in close agreement with a case study reported in the literature. Finally, the concept of equivalent single or multi-tiered planar slopes is explored through an example problem, which exhibits the appropriateness of the proposed non-linear slope geometry under actual field conditions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.275-288
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• 2023

Based on the crucial role of high-speed railway bridges (HSRBs) in the safety of high-speed railway operations, it is an important approach to mitigate earthquake hazards by proceeding with seismic risk assessments in their whole life. Bridge seismic risk assessment, which usually evaluates the seismic performance of bridges from a probabilistic perspective, provides technical support for bridge risk management. The seismic performance of bridges is greatly affected by the degradation of material properties, therefore, material damage plays a nonnegligible role in the seismic risk assessment of the bridge. The effect of material damage is not considered in most current studies on seismic risk analysis of bridges, nevertheless. To fill the gap in this area, in this paper, a nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis has been carried out by establishing OpenSees finite element model, and a seismic vulnerability analysis is carried out based on the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method. On this basis, combined with the site risk analysis, the time-dependent seismic risk analysis of an offshore three-span HSRB in the whole life cycle has been conducted. The results showed that the seismic risk probabilities of both components and system of the bridge increase with the service time, and their seismic risk probabilities increase significantly in the last service period due to the degradation of the material strength, which demonstrates that the impact of durability damage should be considered when evaluating the seismic performance of bridges in the design and service period.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.413-420
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• 2023

Among the seismic structures for reducing earthquake damage, the seismic control structure is a technology that can efficiently improve seismic performance and secure economic feasibility by simply applying a damper. However, existing dampers have limitations in terms of durability due to required seismic performance and material plasticity. In this study, we proposed a polyurethane damper with enhanced recovery characteristics by applying precompression to polyurethane, which basically shows elastic characteristics, and applying superelastic shape memory alloy (SSMA). To verify the characteristics of the polyurethane damper, the concept was first established, and the design details were completed by selecting SSMA and steel, and selecting the precompression size as design variables. In addition, structural tests were conducted to derive response behavior and analyze force resistance performance, residual displacement, recovery rate, and energy dissipation capacity. As a result of the analysis, the polyurethane damper showed that various performances improved when the SSMA wire was applied and the precompression increased.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2022

Soil liquefaction has been one of the most important concerns in geotechnical earthquake engineering in recent years, due to its damages to structures and its destructive effects. The cyclic liquefaction of silty sands, in particular, remains of great interest for both research and application. Although many factors are known that affect the liquefaction resistance of sands, the effect of fine grain content is perhaps one of the most studied and still controversial. In this study, 48 deformation-controlled cyclic simple shear tests were performed on BS and CS silt samples mixed with 5%, 15% and 30% by weight of Krk085, Krk042 and Krk025 sands in constant-volume conditions to determine the liquefaction potential of silty sands. The tests were carried out at 30% and 50% relative density and under 100 kPa effective stress. The results revealed that the liquefaction potential of silty sand increases with increasing average particle size ratio (D_50sand / d_50silt) of the mixture for a fixed silt content. Furthermore, for identical base sand, the liquefaction potentials of coarse grained sands increase with increasing silt content, while the respective potentials of fine grained sands generally decrease. However, this situation may vary depending on the silt grain structure and is affected by the nature of the fine grains. In addition, the variation of the void ratio interval was shown to provide a good intuition in determining the liquefaction potentials of silty sands, while the intergranular void ratio alone does not constitute a criterion for determining the liquefaction potentials of silty sands.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.17-30
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• 2024

Earthquakes can lead to substantial damage to buildings, with long-period ground motion being particularly destructive. The design of high-performance building structures has become a prominent focus of research. The double-story isolated structure is a novel type of isolated structure developed from base isolated structure. To delve deeper into the building performance of double-story isolated structures, the double-story isolated structure was constructed with the upper isolated layer located in different layers, alongside a base isolated structure for comparative analysis. Nonlinear elastoplastic analyses were conducted on these structures using different ground motion inputs, including ordinary ground motion, near-field impulsive ground motion, and far-field harmonic ground motion. The results demonstrate that the double-story isolated structure can extend the structural period further than the base isolated structure under three types of ground motions. The double-story isolated structure exhibits lower base shear, inter-story displacement, base isolated layer displacement, story shear, and maximum acceleration of the top layer, compared to the base isolated structure. In addition, the double-story isolated structure generates fewer plastic hinges in the frame, causes less damage to the core tube, and experiences smaller overturning moments, demonstrating excellent resistance to overturning and a shock-absorbing effect. As the upper isolated layer is positioned higher, the compressive stress on the isolated bearings of the upper isolated layer in the double-story isolated structure gradually decreases. Moreover, the compressive stress on the isolated bearings of the base isolated layer is lower compared to that of the base isolated structure. However, the shock-absorbing capacity of the double-story isolated structure is significantly increased when the upper isolated layer is located in the middle and lower section. Notably, in regions exposed to long-period ground motion, a double-story isolated structure can experience greater seismic response and reduced shock-absorbing capacity, which may be detrimental to the structure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.475-498
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• 2024

The prediction of the susceptibility of soil to liquefaction using a limited set of parameters, particularly when dealing with highly unbalanced databases is a challenging problem. The current study focuses on different ensemble learning classification algorithms using highly unbalanced databases of results from in-situ tests; standard penetration test (SPT), shear wave velocity (V_s) test, and cone penetration test (CPT). The input parameters for these datasets consist of earthquake intensity parameters, strong ground motion parameters, and in-situ soil testing parameters. liquefaction index serving as the binary output parameter. After a rigorous comparison with existing literature, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), bagging, and random forest (RF) emerge as the most efficient models for liquefaction instance classification across different datasets. Notably, for SPT and V_s-based models, XGBoost exhibits superior performance, followed by Light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) and Bagging, while for CPT-based models, Bagging ranks highest, followed by Gradient boosting and random forest, with CPT-based models demonstrating lower G_mean(error), rendering them preferable for soil liquefaction susceptibility prediction. Key parameters influencing model performance include internal friction angle of soil (ϕ) and percentage of fines less than 75 µ (F₇₅) for SPT and V_s data and normalized average cone tip resistance (q_c) and peak horizontal ground acceleration (a_max) for CPT data. It was also observed that the addition of V_s measurement to SPT data increased the efficiency of the prediction in comparison to only SPT data. Furthermore, to enhance usability, a graphical user interface (GUI) for seamless classification operations based on provided input parameters was proposed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.203-218
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• 2024

Beam-column joints in the frame structure are at high risk of brittle shear failure which would lead to significant residual deformation and even the collapse of the structure during an earthquake. In order to improve the damage issue and enhance the recoverability of the beam-column joints, a sector lead rubber damper (SLRD) has been developed. The SLRD can increase the bearing capacity and energy dissipation capacity, and also demonstrating recoverability of seismic performance following cyclic loading. In this paper, the hysteretic behavior of SLRD was experimentally investigated in terms of the regular hysteretic behavior, large deformation behavior and fatigue behavior. Furthermore, a parametric analysis was performed to study the influence of the primary design parameters on the hysteretic behavior of SLRD. The results show that SLRD resist the exerted loading through the shear capacity of both rubber parts coupled with the lead cores in the pre-yielding stage of lead cores. In the post-yielding phase, it is only the rubber parts of the SLRD that provide the shear capacity while the lead cores primarily dissipate the energy through shear deformation. The SLRD possesses a robust capacity for large deformation and can sustain hysteretic behavior when subjected to a loading rotation angle of 1/7 (equivalent to 200% shear strain of the rubber component). Furthermore, it demonstrates excellent fatigue resistance, with a degradation of critical behavior indices by no more than 15% in comparison to initial values even after 30 cycles. As for the designing practice of SLRD, it is recommended to adopt the double lead core scheme, along with a rubber material having the lowest possible shear modulus while meeting the desired bearing capacity and a thickness ratio of 0.4 to 0.5 for the thin steel plate.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.5-16
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• 2020

Currently, the seismic design standards have been strengthened due to the occurrence of the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquake, and seismic performance evaluation of existing facilities is being conducted. It aims to secure a seismic performance effect during earthquakes by improving the micro-pile method, which can be constructed in limited confined places while minimizing damage to existing facilities. The improvement method is to construct all the piles in the square-tray-type plate on the top of the pile by constructing the slope pile in the form of an umbrella around the vertical pile, the main pillar. In this paper, the numerical analysis was performed to analyze the horizontal displacement behavior of an umbrella-type micropile for various real-measurement seismic waves in sandy soil. As a result of numerical analysis, the softer the ground, the better the effect of horizontal resistance of umbrella-type micropile. The horizontal displacement reduction effect was pronounced when the embedded depth was 15 m or more at the same ground strength, and it was found to be effective in earthquakes if it was settled on the ground with an N value of 30 or more. The embedded depth and horizontal displacement suppression effect of the micropile was proportional. Generally, the weaker the ground, the greater the displacement suppression effect. Umbrella-type micropile had a composite resistance effect in which the vertical pile resists the moment and inclined pile resists the axial force.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2010

This study is to consider applicability of spiral bolt strain gauge as an instrument measuring behavior of soft ground foundation and rock slope. When the instrument was installed on the ground, it can be useful to identify the state of ground behavior because it has the characteristics of flexibility, as well as to apply the ground reinforcement because it has higher pull-out resistance to the ground. From the measurement of behavior to soft ground foundation, the strain shows a stable state in the beginning, then was observed significant change in the upper and the middle of spiral bolt strain gauge after 400 days. This is analyzed that ground loosening, which is due to occurred frequent earthquake of magnitude 1~2 with increased rainfall, lead to the instability of the ground. From the measurement of behavior to rock slope, the strain shows a stable state with very little change in a period of 0~50 days and the biggest strain at 4.2 m (P6) in a period of 50~100 days, then other places except P6 was maintained at a stable state in a period of 100~160 days. The reason is analyzed because that blasting for excavated limestone surrounding was affected to the largest at P6. However, based on the size of strain change by behavior of the soft ground foundation and rock slope, it is considered that the present condition are not effected on stability of retaining structure and rock slope. In conclusion, the proposed spiral bolt strain gauge can be useful to measure behavior of soft ground foundation and rock slope, and also to be measured behavior as well as reinforcement of the target ground.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.295-303
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• 2023

South Korea has recently witnessed an increasing number of seismic events, leading to a surge in studies focusing on seismic earth pressures, as well as the attributes of geological layers and ground where foundations are established. Consequently, earthquake-resistant design has become imperative to ensure the safety of subterranean structures. The slurry wall method, due to its superior wall rigidity, excellent water resistance, and minimal noise and vibration, is often employed in constructing high-rise buildings in urban areas. However, given the separation between panels that constitute the wall, slurry walls possess limited resistance to seismic loads in the longitudinal direction. As a solution, several studies have probed into the possibility of interconnecting slurry wall panels to augment their seismic performance. In this research, we developed and evaluated a method for linking slurry wall panels using mechanical joints, including concrete-confined steel pipes and headed bars, through mock-up tests. We also assessed the constructability of the suggested method and compared it with other analogous methods. Any challenges identified during the mock-up test were discussed to guide future research in resolving them. The results of this study aid in enhancing the seismic performance of slurry walls through the development of an interconnected panel method. Further research can build on these findings to address the identified issues and improve the efficacy and reliability of the proposed method.