• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.191-200
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• 2005

Shaking table tests of the seismic behavior of a steel frame structure model were performed. The purpose of these tests was to estimate the effects of a near-fault ground motion and a scenario earthquake based on a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for nuclear power plant structures. Three representative kinds of earthquake ground motions were used for the input motions: the design earthquake ground motion for the Korean nuclear power plants, the scenario earthquakes for Korean nuclear power plant sites, and the near-fault earthquake record from the Chi-Chi earthquake. The probability-based scenario earthquakes were developed for the Korean nuclear power plant sites using the PSHA data. A 4-story steel frame structure was fabricated to perform the tests. Test results showed that the high frequency ground motions of the scenario earthquake did not damage the structure at the nuclear power plant site; however, the ground motions had a serious effect on the equipment installed on the high floors of the building. This shows that the design earthquake is not conservative enough to demonstrate the actual danger to safety related nuclear power plant equipment.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.371-380
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• 2023

To calculate seismic fragility, it is important to select input earthquake ground motions that can properly express the characteristics of the target site. This study analyzed the seismic fragility of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model based on input earthquake ground motions in strong and low-to-moderate seismic regions. As a first step, a total of four sets of input earthquake ground motions were selected,: two sets measured near or far from overseas strong earthquake records and two sets exhibiting the characteristics of low-to-moderate earthquake regions in South Korea. A nonlinear SDOF model for three natural periods was applied to the target structure, and incremental dynamic analysis was used for fragility analysis. In addition, four damage states were defined, and seismic fragility results for each natural period of the nonlinear SDOF model for the four aforementioned input earthquake ground motion sets were obtained for each damage state.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.293-304
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• 2007

In 2007, Round Robin Test (RRT) on ground response analyses has been conducted by the technical committee of Soil Dynamics and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering of Korean Geotechnical Society. Total 14 teams have reported 16 different results. This paper discusses the evaluation of ground response dispersion caused by the difference of input ground motions. In order to determine the characteristics of ground response, this study analysed the peak ground acceleration, predominant period, and response spectrum of reported ground surface motions. The results suggest that ground response dispersion due to the difference of input ground motions can be significant.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.39-43
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• 1998

The objective of the study is to develop attenuation equations of groud motions in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earthquake source characteristics and the medium properties were estimated from available instrumental earthquake records and used as input parameters. The peak ground accelerations (PGA) and pseudo-velocty response spectra(PSV) were simulated by the random vibration theory. The attenuation equations for the PGA were constructed in terms of local magnitudes and hypocentral distances.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.141-150
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• 2014

A methodology to evaluate the seismic performance of interface piping systems that cross the isolation interface in the seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) was developed. The developed methodology was applied to the safety-related interface piping system to demonstrate the seismic performance of the target piping system. Not only the seismic performance for the design level earthquakes but also the performance for the beyond design level earthquakes were evaluated. Two artificial seismic ground input motions which were matched to the design response spectra and two historical earthquake ground motions were used for the seismic analysis of piping system. The preliminary performance evaluation results show that the excessive relative displacements can occur in the seismically isolated piping system. If the input ground motion contained relatively high energy in the low frequency region, we could find that the stress response of the piping system exceed the allowable stress level even though the intensity of the input ground motion is equal to the design level earthquake. The structural responses and seismic performances of piping system were varied sensitively with respect to the intensities and frequency contents of input ground motions. Therefore, for the application of isolation system to NPPs and the verification of the safety of piping system, the seismic performance of the piping system subjected to the earthquake at the target NPP site should be evaluated firstly.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.70-80
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• 2000

In order to reduce seismic hazard the characteristics of strong earthquakes are required. In the region where strong earthquakes do not happen frequently the stochastic simulation of strong motion is an alternative way to predict strong motions. this simulation required input parameters such as the quality factor the corner frequency the moment magnitude the stress drop and so on which can be obtained from analyses of records of small and intermediate earthquakes. Using those parameters obtained in the previous work the strong ground motions are predicted employing the stochastic method, . The results are compared to the two observed earthquakes-the Ulsan Offshore Earthquake and the Kyungju Earthquake. Although some deviations are found the predictions are similar to the observed data. Finally we computed attenuation equations for PGA PGV and ground accelerations for some frequencies using the results of predictions. These results can be used for earthquake engineering and more reliable results will come out as earthquake observations continue.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.145-150
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• 1999

In the nonlinear dynamic structural analysis, the given ground excitation as an input should be well defined. Because of the lack of recorded accelerograms in Korea, it is required to generate an artificial earthquake by a stochastic model of ground excitation with various dynamic properties rather than recorded accelerograms. It is well known that earthquake motions are generally non-stationary with time-varying intensity and frequency content. Many researchers have proposed non-stationary random process models. Yeh and Wen (1990) proposed a non-stationary stochastic process model which can be modeled as components with an intensity function, a frequency modulation function and a power spectral density function to describe such non-stationary characteristics. This paper shows the process to generate nonstationary artificial earthquake ground motions considering target design response spectrum chosen by ATC14.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2396-2406
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• 2021

The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center has been developing a performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) methodology, which is based on explicit determination of performance, e.g., monetary losses, in a probabilistic manner where uncertainties in earthquake ground motion, structural response, damage estimation, and losses are explicitly considered. To carry out the PEER PBEE procedure for a component of the nuclear power plant (NPP) such as the cable tray system, hazard curve and spectra were defined for two hazard levels of the ground motions, namely, operation basis earthquake, and safe shutdown earthquake. Accordingly, two sets of spectral compatible ground motions were selected for dynamic analysis of the cable tray system. In general, the PBEE analysis of the cable tray in NPP was introduced where the resulting floor motions from the time history analysis (THA) of the NPP structure should be used as the input motion to the cable tray. However, for simplicity, a finite element model of the cable tray was developed for THA under the effect of the selected ground motions. Based on the structural analysis results, fragility curves were generated in terms of specific engineering demand parameters. Loss analysis was performed considering monetary losses corresponding to the predefined damage states. Then, overall losses were evaluated for different damage groups using the PEER PBEE methodology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.259-265
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• 2007

The technical committee of Soil Dynamics and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering of Korean Geotechnical Socity has conducted Round Robin Test(RRT) on seismic ground response analyses in 2007. Total 14 participating teams were given exact same soil information of three sites and three input ground motions including two recorded ground motions and one synthetic ground motion. Each team selected its own analysis method and approaches to perform ground response analyses. There were equivalent linear, nonlinear total stress, and nonlinear effective stress approaches, which could be selected. The results from RRT were systematically analyzed and dispersion and variation due to analysis methods, input ground motions, shear velocity profiles, shear modulus reduction curves, damping curves, and other input data are reported by the companion papers.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.341-349
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• 2016

Currently, researches are being actively conducted in assessing seismic performance of nuclear facilities in USA and Europe. In particular, applying this technique of assessing seismic performance to design of isolation systems in nuclear power plants is being performed and then ASCE 4 Draft (2013) is being revised accordingly in the United States. In order to satisfy the probabilistic performance objectives described by seismic responses with certain confidence levels (ASCE 43, 2005), the probability distributions of these responses have to be defined. What is the minimum number of input ground-motions to obtain the probability distribution precise enough to represent the unknown actual distribution? Theoretical basis, for how to determine the minimum number of input ground-motions for given a logarithmic standard deviation to approximate the unknown actual median of the log-normal distribution within a range of error at a certain level of confidence, is introduced by Huang et al. (2008). However, the relationship between the level of confidence and the range of error is not stated in the previous study. In this paper, based on careful reviews on the previous work, the relationship between the level of confidence and the range of error is logically and explicitly stated. Furthermore, this relationship is also applied to derive the minimum number of input ground-motions in order to approximate the unknown actual logarithmic standard deviation. Several recommendations are made for determining the minimum number of input ground-motions in probabilistic assessment on seismic performance of facilities in nuclear power plants.