• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.223-232
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• 2021

The spatial variation characteristics of seismic motions at the nuclear power plant's site and structures were analyzed using earthquake records obtained at the Fukushima nuclear power plant during the Great East Japan Earthquake. The ground responses amplified as they approached the soil surface from the lower rock surface, and the amplification occurred intensively at about 50 m near the ground. Due to the soil layer's nonlinear characteristics caused by the strong seismic motion, the ground's natural frequency derived from the response spectrum ratio appeared to be smaller than that calculated from the shear wave velocity profile. The spatial variation of the peak ground acceleration at the ground surface of the power plant site showed a significant difference of about 0.6 g at the maximum. As a result of comparing the response spectrums at the basement of the structure with the design response spectrum, there was a large variability by each power plant unit. The difference was more significant in the Fukushima Daiichi site record, which showed larger peak ground acceleration at the surface. The earthquake motions input to the basement of the structure amplified according to the structure's height. The natural frequency obtained from the recorded results was lower than that indicated in the previous research. Also, the floor response spectrum change according to the location at the same height was investigated. The vertical response on the foundation surface showed a significant difference in spectral acceleration depending on the location. The amplified response in the structure showed a different variability depending on the type of structure and the target frequency.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1241-1254
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• 2015

Spatially variable ground motions can be significant on the seismic response of a structure due to the incoherency of the incident wave. Incoherence of the incident wave is resulted from wave passage and wave scattering. In this study, wave passage effect on the response spectrum of a building structure built on a soft soil layer was investigated utilizing a finite element program of P3DASS (Pseudo 3-dimensional Dynamic Analysis of a Structure-soil System). P3DASS was developed for the axisymmetric problem in the cylindrical coordinate, but it is modified to apply anti-symmetric input earthquake motions. Study results were compared with the experimental results to verify the reliability of P3DASS program for the shear wave velocity of 250 m/s and the apparent shear wave velocities of 2000-3500 m/s. Studied transfer functions of input motions between surface mat foundation and free ground surface were well-agreed to the experimental ones with a small difference in all frequency ranges, showing some reductions of the transfer function in the high frequency range. Also wave passage effect on the elastic response spectrum reduced the elastic seismic response of a SDOF system somewhat in the short period range.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.219-228
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• 2024

This study examines damping modification factors (DMFs) of elastic input energy spectra corresponding to a set of 116 earthquake ground motions. Mean input energy per mass spectra and mean DMFs are presented for both considered ground motion components. Damping ratios of 3%, 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30% are used and the 5% damping ratio is considered the benchmark for DMF computations. The geometric mean DMFs of the two horizontal components of each ground motion are computed and coefficients of variation are presented graphically. The results show that the input energy spectra-based DMFs exhibit a dependence on the damping ratio at very short periods and they tend to be nearly constant for larger periods. In addition, mean DMF variation is obtained graphically for also the damping ratio, and mathematical functions are fitted as a result of statistical analyses. A strong correlation between the computed DMFs and the ones from predicted equations is observed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.59-65
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• 2020

The empirical Green's function method is applied to the foreshock and the mainshock of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake to simulate strong ground motions of the mainshock and scenario earthquake at seismic stations of seven metropolises in South Korea, respectively. To identify the applicability of the method in advance, the mainshock is simulated, assuming the foreshock as the empirical Green's function. As a result of the simulation, the overall shape, the amplitude of PGA, and the duration and response spectra of the simulated seismic waveforms are similar with those of the observed seismic waveforms. Based on this result, a scenario earthquake on the causative fault of Gyeongju earthquake with a moment magnitude 6.5 is simulated, assuming that the mainshock serves as the empirical Green's function. As a result, the amplitude of PGA and the duration of simulated seismic waveforms are significantly increased and extended, and the spectral amplitude of the low frequency band is relatively increased compared with that of the high frequency band. If the empirical Green's function method is applied to several recent well-recorded moderate earthquakes, the simulated seismic waveforms can be used as not only input data for developing ground motion prediction equations, but also input data for creating the design response spectra of major facilities in South Korea.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.779-807
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• 2016

Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) are essential tools in seismic hazard analysis. With the introduction of probabilistic approaches for the estimation of seismic response of structures, also known as, performance based earthquake engineering framework; new tasks are defined for response spectrum such as the reference criterion for effective structure-specific selection of ground motions for nonlinear time history analysis. One of the recent efforts to introduce a high quality databank of ground motions besides the corresponding selection scheme based on the broadband spectral consistency is the development of SIMBAD (Selected Input Motions for displacement-Based Assessment and Design), which is designed to improve the reliability of spectral values at all natural periods by removing noise with modern proposed approaches. In this paper, a new global GMPE is proposed by using selected ground motions from SIMBAD to improve the reliability of computed spectral shape indicators. To determine regression coefficients, 204 pairs of horizontal components from 35 earthquakes with magnitude ranging from Mw 5 to Mw 7.1 and epicentral distances lower than 40 km selected from SIMBAD are used. The proposed equation is compared with similar models both qualitatively and quantitatively. After the verification of model by several goodness-of-fit measures, the epsilon values as the spectral shape indicator are computed and the validity of available prediction equations for correlation of the pairs of epsilon values is examined. General consistency between predictions by new model and others, especially, in short periods is confirmed, while, at longer periods, there are meaningful differences between normalized residuals and correlation coefficients between pairs of them estimated by new model and those are computed by other empirical equations. A simple collapse assessment example indicate possible improvement in the correlation between collapse capacity and spectral shape indicators (${\varepsilon}$) up to 20% by selection of a more applicable GMPE for calculation of ${\varepsilon}$.

• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.3-9
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• 2001

Pseudo dynamic test for seven circular RC bridge piers has been carried out to investigate their seismic performance subjected to expected artificial earthquake motions. The objective of this experimental study is to investigate the hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers, which have been widely used for railway and urban transportation facilities. Important test parameters are confinement steel ratio, and input ground motion. The seismic behavior of circular RC bridge piers under artificial ground motions has been evaluated through displacement ductility, cumulative energy input, and dissipation capacity. It can be concluded that RC bridge piers designed in a limited ductile behavior provision of Eurocode 8 have been determined to show good seismic performance even under moderate artificial earthquakes.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2003

Due to the random nature of earthquake, the definition of the input excitation is one of the major uncertainties in the seismic response analysis. Furthermore, ground motions that correspond to a limited number of design parameters are not unique. Consequently, a brood range of response values can be obtained even with a set of motions, which match the same target parameters. The paper presents a practical probabilistic approach that can be used to systematically model the stochastic nature of seismic loading. The new approach is based on energy-based RMS hazard and takes account for the uncertainties of key ground motion parameters. The simulations indicate that the new RMS procedure is particularly useful for the rigorous probabilistic seismic response analysis, since the procedure is suitable for generation of large number of hazard-compatible motions, unlike the conventional procedure that aim to generate a small number of motions.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.353-360
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• 2001

An analysis procedure of 2-dimensional bridge dynamics has been developed by using force-deformation model, which simulates the pier motion under biaxial bending due to the bi-directional input seismic excitations. A three-dimensional mechanical model is utilized, which can consider the other major phenomena such as pounding, rotation of the superstructure, abutment stiffness degradation, and motions of the foundation motions. The bi-directional dynamic behaviors of the bridge are then examined by investigating the relative displacements of each oscillator to the ground. It is found that the nonlinearity of the pier due to biaxial bending affects the pier motions, but the global bridge behaviors are greatly governed by the pounding phenomena and stiffness degradation of the abutment-backfill system. Especially, the relative displacement of the abutment system (A2) with movable supports to the ground is increased about 30% due to the abutment stiffness degradation.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.361-367
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• 2001

This research aims at evaluating the seismic performance of the R/C bridge piers, which were seismically designed in accordance with the seismic provision of limited ductile behavior of Eurocode 8. Pseudo dynamic test for six(6) circular RC bridge piers has been carried out so at to investigate their seismic performance subjected to experted artificial earthquake motions. The objective of this experimental study is to investigate the hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers. Important test parameters are confinement steel ratio, input ground motion, etc. The seismic behavior of circular concrete piers under artificial ground motions has been evaluated through displacement ductility, energy analysis, capacity spectrum. It can be concluded that RC bridge piers designed in the seismic code of limited ductile behavior of Eurocode 8 have been determined to show good seismic performance even under expected artificial earthquakes in moderate seismicity region.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.177-184
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• 2005

Even in moderate to low seismic regions like Korean peninsular where wind loading usually governs the structural design of a tall building, the probable structural impact of the design basis earthquake or the maximum credible earthquake on the selected structural system should be considered at least in finalizing the design. In this study, by using response spectrum analysis and time history analysis method, seismic performance evaluation was conducted for wind-designed concentrically braced steel highrise buildings. Input ensemble was normalized to be compatible with expected peak ground acceleration. The analysis results showed that wind-designed concentrically braced steel highrise buildings possess significantly increased elastic seismic capacity due to the system overstrength resulting from the wind-serviceability criterion and the width-to-thickness ratio limits on steel members. The time history analysis tended to significantly underestimated the seismic response as compared to response spectrum analysis. Further detailed studies regarding selection and scaling scheme of input ground motions is needed.